Undisclosed Desires
by inkheart9459
Summary: Beca loves Muse, like super duper loves. So when she sees they're coming to Atlanta she and some of the Bellas grab tickets. She's not expecting the opening act to be stellar, she's barely expecting them to be decent, but then DSM comes on stage and she can't take her eyes off the blonde angel of a lead singer and she knows she's a goner. Cowritten with Valnixyrie.
1. 1: Madness

Hello again, y'all. I cowrote this with the lovely Valnixyrie. We're busy bees guys. Busy writing bees. Anyway, this is an AU where DSM is an opening act for Muse, but much of the other stuff stayed the same. That's about all you really need to know for opening info. So with that, enjoy.

* * *

Beca always loved the smell of the air at a concert. So many people who loved the same music so much together in the same area, it changed how everything felt somehow. Couple that with the fact that she was excited out of her damn mind but trying to play it cool, and it almost felt like electricity buzzing along her skin.

"Are you coming, Becs? We still have to find our seats and the opening act is in like fifteen minutes," Chloe said, looking back at Beca as the crowd surged around them. The rest of the Bellas with them were following behind Aubrey as if it was three years ago all over again, not stopping to check on the others behind them.

"Yeah, uh yeah, it's just." She gestured around vaguely. "I just really like concerts." She shrugged and started to walk forward, elbowing people out of her way, dodging people who didn't see her, the normal things she had to do as a short person to navigate through crowds.

"Well, duh," Chloe said before slipping between two people standing in the middle of the road. "You are going to be a music producer. Aren't concerts sort of part of that?" Chloe continued when they came back together again.

"Yeah, sort of, but now it's just-"

Chloe cut Beca off. "Muse is like your super favoritest band ever, I know." She smiled at her. "Why do you think we're all here."

"Oh come on, you like Muse too. I've heard you singing some of their songs in the shower."

"You correct me when I get the lyrics wrong through the bathroom door." Chloe shot Beca an amused look.

Beca didn't really have anything to say to that. Chloe had a point there.

They managed to catch up with the rest of the Bellas, filing down one of the rows, looking for their seats. Aubrey was checking the numbers diligently while Fat Amy and Stacie just looked around the crowd and called out if they saw any hot guys or girls. Chloe slipped beside Aubrey and grabbed her hand, interlacing their fingers.

The group made their way up about halfway and finally found their row and in turn their seats. Beca smiled. The seats were fucking perfect. She was glad they'd spent a fuck ton of money just to make sure they weren't up in the nosebleeds. This was totally going to be worth it. Inside she was bouncing on her toes.

Aubrey sat down in her seat primly. "There are more people here than I thought there would be."

"Why?" Beca said, sitting on the other side of her, Fat Amy already hogging the armrest. Typical.

"They aren't terribly mainstream, are they?" Aubrey shrugged.

"Uh, sort of? I mean they're not like top forty or anything, but most people know them." Sometimes her friends misconceptions about the music world, when they basically lived in the music world, boggled her mind.

Before Aubrey had the chance to retort, the lights in the arena dimmed. The auditorium erupted in cheers and excited squeals. It took every ounce of restraint in Beca's body not to start flailing around like an overly enthusiastic six-year-old. The announcer of the evening appeared on the stage, running off his pre-scripted lines of advertisement and sponsorship. Beca wished he would just get on with it so they could get through the opening act and onto the marvel that is Muse.

After what seemed like an eternity and a half of waiting for the man to finish his spiel , the stage was finally empty again as the stadium turned black. Beca took a deep breath. Ok, opening act. She hadn't even looked up who was performing before Muse, she'd just seen Muse and instantly bought the tickets and the Bellas had followed suit. She hoped they were good, but even if they were bad she would fucking sit through them just to get to Muse. Though if her ears were bleeding that was going to severely impede her enjoyment.

The lights came up again and there was huge group of people in the middle of the stage. There were at least fifteen bodies on the platform, all dressed alike in black ensembles half made out of mesh. They were admittedly a bit intimidating, to say the least. The screaming around her intensified and a bunch of the people in the arena started chanting. It took Beca a second to figure out what the words were.

"DSM! JA!"

Beca squinted. DSM, she had never heard them before, but if the crowd was shouting 'ja' at them, she wondered what the odds were that the group was German.

Music started to play. Beca recognized it, but it was faster than normal. It wasn't until a few bars into the first song that she realized, it wasn't music like you'd normally hear at a concert. She didn't hear any real instruments, no bass line, it sounded more like what they did with the Bellas. Oh, this group was a cappella. Like, scary, unbelievably _good_ a cappella. Beca's interest and attention immediately skyrocketed and focused on the stage.

A blonde woman came forward and started to sing. "And another one bites the dust. Oh why can I not conquer love?" She had a slight German accent, and that somehow made it even better.

Beca's jaw hit the floor before she had a clue of what was going on. Holy aca-moly. There was no way a human being actually sounded like that. No, fucking, god damn way. It was like an angel was singing to her. And she looked like an angel, blonde hair and perfect face lit up by the stage lights perfectly. She was not real, no chance in hell or high water.

"And I might have thought that we were one, wanted to fight this war without weapons," the angel continued to sing as a man stepped up beside her, even taller, and more intimidating. He had to be at least 6 feet tall, but probably more. Jesus, what did they feed them? Must be the schnitzel. Gotta be the damn schnitzel. Maybe the beer too. And maybe Miracle Grow. Where was any of that when she was growing? Oh right, in Germany since they were clearly mass producing giants.

"And I wanted it, I wanted it bad, but there were so many red flags," the man sang, voice deep and clear and melding well with the background singing. Clearly everyone in the group was just so fucking skilled they put the three time national a cappella championship winners to shame. "Now another one bites the dust."

The woman picked up the solo. "Yeah, let's be clear I trust no one."

The music behind them shifted, intertwining a new melody into the "Elastic Heart." Beca tilted her head for just a second trying to place it before the woman started to sing again.

"Rule number one is that you gotta have fun, but baby when you're done, you gotta be the first to run. Rule number two just don't get attached to, somebody you could lose, so le-let me tell you."

The man started to sing again, but Beca didn't shift her focus from the woman, choosing instead to watch the woman breathing slightly hard as she continued to dance along to their set choreography.

"Well I've got thick skin and an elastic heart, but your blade it might be too sharp. I'm like a rubberband until you pull too hard. Yeah I may snap and I move fast, but you won't see me fall apart."

The woman started to sing again and Beca was starting to get caught up in the overall narrative they were weaving together with the two songs. She hadn't ever imagined these two songs together, but somehow they worked. Beca wanted to meet whoever had done the mixing, but more importantly she wanted to meet the tall blonde drink of water in front of her, holy shit.

"Rule number three, wear your heart on your cheek, but never on your sleeve unless you want to taste defeat. Rule number four, gotta be looking pure, kiss him goodbye at the door and leave him wanting more, more."

The verse traded off again. "And I will stay up through the night, And let's be clear I won't close my eyes. And I know that I can survive, I'll walk through fire to save my life."

"This is how to be a heartbreaker," the woman sang, and Beca fucking agreed with that hands down. The woman could _look_ at a person and break their heart. "Boys they like a little danger. We'll get him falling for a stranger, a player, singing I lo-lo-love you."

And it was back to the man and the melody to Heartbreaker faded slowly as he kept singing and Beca could sense the end of the song was near. The man was staring at the woman from across the stage, looking forlornly at her, but standing tall. She made no effort to look his way, instead doing just the opposite, deliberately ignoring him. Beca watched on in awe as the pair told a story not only through the lyrics but through their perfectly planned but oh-so-simple choreography. "And I want it, I want my life so bad, I'm doing everything I can. Then another one bites the dust. It's hard to lose a chosen one." The music started to fade and the spotlight was starting to focus on the man. "You did not break me. I'm still fighting for peace."

It went silent for just a moment before everyone erupted into cheers. Beca found herself screaming, waiting for the lights to come again so she could see the woman. Holy shit. That had been...she didn't even have words for it. How in the world had she never heard of these guys before? That was just. Wow.

The screams quieted as the lights came up again and Beca immediately found the blonde angel as the next song began. The first strains of Pompeii started and Beca's heart started to beat harder. Oh, she was in for it. Totally in for it. Four more songs were not going to be enough. But she was damn well going to enjoy them while they lasted. And by enjoy she meant she was going to be staring at the woman the entire time, but no one had to know that except her.

* * *

Beca looked around after the opening act was done, a little dazed, not exactly sure who she was anymore. Her mind had been blown. Totally and utterly blown into the next county, hell the next , y'know, maybe it was laying on the sidewalk somewhere in Berlin at this point. And now she wanted to meet the people behind that performance. Well, really just the blonde woman, but talking to others wouldn't hurt her. Probably.

The rest of her group was clapping and screaming. Fat Amy was calling out about how she wanted to be in a German man sandwich and Stacie was making bedroom eyes at half the group as they walked off stage. Beca swallowed and looked at Aubrey and Chloe on the other side of her. Aubrey was clapping politely, but Beca could see the tightness around her eyes that said she felt threatened by their perfection, even if she hadn't been the leader of the Bellas for three years now. Chloe was just happy, as always.

She turned to Beca with a smile. "That was really great for an opening act, right?"

Beca nodded quickly. "Oh yeah, a lot better than I expected actually. I thought they were gonna kinda suck like most opening acts, you know?"

"Yeah, cool that they didn't though."

Beca glanced up at the stage again, now empty and dark and she made a snap decision. The best time to meet DSM was right now if she went to their merch booth. Everyone else would stay for the rest of the show. It was now or never. If she went afterwards she wouldn't really get to talk to them at all.

"Hey, I'm going to go to the bathroom really quick," Beca blurted out.

Chloe squinted at her. "You can't wait 'til intermission? You're going to miss some of the show."

Beca waved her off. "It's only part of the first song, you know? They play the eh songs first and save the best for last. It'll be fine."

Chloe shrugged. "All right." She stepped back for Beca to get through and Beca shot off, up the aisle and towards the merch booth like lightning.

She had been correct in her assumption that there wouldn't be many people out of their seats so she had an easy time getting to the DSM merchandise table. There were a few patrons buying t-shirts and posters but other than that, the booth was pretty vacant. She could see that the group hadn't shown up yet so she took the time to browse the inventory.

Beca ended up settling on a black zip-up hoodie complete with the DSM logo on the back in big white lettering. Just as she handed the cashier her money, a throng of black-clad giants came moseying up to the booth. Her pulse quickened and she felt her body churn with nerves.

She noticed that the whole group wasn't present, as their ranks seemed significantly smaller than they looked on stage. She didn't spot the blonde, at first. Her eyes scanned the crowd for her, finding the mega-tall man, the beat-boxing guy, and a few other soloists. They all began to intermingle with the few people who had been waiting alongside her at the table. She was beginning to think this had been a waste of time until she suddenly felt a presence to her right.

"Good choice." came a low, accented voice from behind her. The Bella spun on her heel and nearly collided with the person next to her. She managed to steady herself- until she realized who it was that had spoken to her, at which point she about fell flat on her ass with surprise. It was the blonde lead of DSM. Of course it was. Where the hell had she come from?

And of course she was even more astonishing up close. Beca should've expected as much. The German was a good six to eight inches taller than her, at least. She had released her hair from it's intricately braided bun, leaving it to fall around her shoulders in golden waves. The occasional strand twisted and crimped here and there, the remnants of a braid still apparent. Other than that, she looked pretty much the same as she had on stage.

Except now, Beca could see how unbelievably striking her features were. Her eyes were a piercing cross between light blue and green that the brunette could feel herself falling into. Her cheek, jaw, and brow bones looked as though they had been carved directly from the highest quality marble that money could buy. Her skin was glowing but didn't appear to have the slightest sign of sweat at all, though she could smell something warm and sweet. Cinnamon, perhaps?

"We match, now." The woman continued, snapping Beca out of her own head. One brow raised as she tugged on the shoulder of her own jacket, eyeing the Bella curiously. Right, she had just bought a DSM hoodie. Beca tried desperately to regain her composure in front of this girl, which was proving to be more difficult than it should've been.

"Right, yeah! It uh- it's a pretty cool design." Wow, Beca, come on. It's not like you've never spoken to an attractive person before, get it together!

The woman seemed unfazed by Beca's awkwardness.

"So, I assume you enjoyed the performance, if you're buying from our merchandise, ja?" She queried, stuffing her hands in the pockets of her jacket.

"Ja, definitely!" Beca began enthusiastically before catching herself. Cool it Beca, you don't want her to think you're just some fan. "I mean, uh, yeah, you guys are pretty good." Nice save.

The German chuckled, "You're cute. And so tiny, like a little maus!" She looked at Beca appraisingly, shamelessly dragging her gaze over the smaller woman's body.

Beca felt her face and neck heat up under her scrutiny. "Well, you're all legs and golden perfection, so." What. The. Fuck. Where did that even come from? Holy shit. That was not the way to start a human conversation in any culture. What is happening right now?

"Thank you." The goddess replied, smoothly. She had to be used to receiving these types of compliments. All you had to do was look at her to know that.

"I'm Beca, by the way."

The opening beat of 'Dead Inside' shook through the building as Muse began their performance. The sounds of thousands of cheers erupted out into the halls and to the booth where they stood. Dammit, of course they would start with one of the best songs, exactly what Beca said wouldn't happen. Though, come to think of it, all of their songs were equally as wonderful, so it wouldn't have really made a difference what they opened with.

"Well, maus, I hope you'll come to our meet and greet once the concert is over. We'll be here, signing autographs and such. I'm sure you want to get back in there to see the show now, hmm?"

Beca nodded fervently. "Uh, yeah, Muse is, yeah."

The woman stepped closer. "They are good and you did pay money to see them, not us, ja?"

"Uh, ja." Beca was having a really hard time actually doing anything the woman said. She had to turn around and walk away like a normal human being but it literally felt like a magnet was holding her in place and she had metal in her shoes.

"Then I will see you later." The woman smirked and turned away.

"Yeah…" Still not moving, watching the woman walk away. Who looked that damn perfect from the back? God, her ass...

"Beca, there you are!" Chloe's shrill mother-bear tone sang over the pounding bass of the song. The brunette quickly spun around and met the redhead halfway, not wanting to have to explain the current situation to her best friend.

"You know the bathrooms are like, clear back there, right?" Chloe asked when they met halfway.

"Uh?" Beca's brain was still working really, really fucking slowly and she couldn't come up with a good excuse to why she was closer to the merch table than the bathrooms.

Chloe looked around and spotted the merch table immediately. She picked up the hoodie straight out of Beca's arms and looked at it. "DSM, you went to their merch table. You know, you could have just said that."

"Um, I just saw it on the way back from the bathroom."

"Uh, Becs, if you went to the bathroom, you wouldn't have even seen this place." Chloe leaned in, doing that whole disregarding boundaries thing. "You're blushing."

"Dude, we're missing the show, come on." Beca deflected, trying to end this exchange as soon as possible. She brushed past Chloe and marched back into the auditorium. Chloe followed her in a confused and skeptical huff, but once they were back into the concert it was a little too loud to talk and so she left it, and Beca had never been more grateful for concert noise in her life.

When they got to their seats again, 'Dead Inside' was ending and a new song was beginning. Beca smiled as she recognized the beginning chords of 'Madness' thumping through the speakers. Missing 'Dead Inside' was a bummer, but 'Madness' was one of her all-time favorites. Beca lost herself in the music, feeling it thump through her body. This was how she liked music the best, flowing through her like blood. And honestly, at that point, she wasn't entirely sure that her blood wasn't in fact liquid music. After the embarrassing encounter with DSM's leader, whose name she still did not know, and Chloe finding her, this was what she needed.

They played through half of the set and Beca was finally relaxed again, her friends dancing around her. She could feel Chloe's eyes on her periodically, but they didn't matter. She was here to enjoy the music. That's why she'd paid as much as she did, right?

Her eyes blinked open as Muse started to play 'Undisclosed Desires.' Another one of her favorites. She opened her mouth to sing along, turning to the side to look at Chloe when she saw the DSM woman again. She froze. The angel was standing not ten feet away from the Bellas' seats with her group in the side aisle. She swallowed hard as the music built around her, making her heart beat harder while her palms started to sweat and a riot of butterflies took over her stomach. Though, that riot of butterflies felt more like a horde of pterodactyls. She tried to keep her eyes on the stage, she really did. But with a woman who looked like that, it was impossible to say the least.

As if by magic, the woman's eyes found Beca's, darker blue now in the light reflected off the stage. The brunette's breath hitched sharply in her chest and her eyes blew wide as the German woman started to mouth along to the song, all while still staring at Beca.

"I want to reconcile the violence in your heart

I want to recognise your beauty's not just a mask

I want to exorcise the demons from your past

I want to satisfy the undisclosed desires in your heart."

Beca wasn't sure she could handle anymore of this. A woman, a really, really fucking hot woman was singing a song to her that was all about lovers and sex. Oh my holy shit balls. She was not okay.

And of course it didn't take Chloe long to realize that. She glanced over at Beca, realized in a second that she wasn't paying attention to the stage, and turned to see what she was looking at. She was by Beca's ear in a second. "Oh my god!" she shouted. "You went to see the hot blonde one didn't you?"

Beca gestured that she couldn't hear Chloe even though she damn well could and she figured her friend knew that too. She wasn't stupid or by any means oblivious, quite the opposite actually. There was no doubt in Beca's mind that the ginger had already pieced this whole scenario together, the gears in her head turning like mad as they tried to dissect the situation. Well fuck. She was totally going to hear about this later.

And of course the German woman chose that exact second to wink rather obviously and Beca loudly choked on the air she was breathing in. Jesus, what was wrong with her? Oh, she knew exactly what was wrong with her and it was hot and German, but that was so beside the point right now because she wasn't some complete horny idiot. Except that maybe she was. Because she accidentally stumbled into Chloe in her overreaction and the German woman grinned, wide and triumphant.

Beca turned around and faced the front again. She couldn't look back that way again. She was going to watch Muse. That was why she was here. Except now the rest of the set felt like an eternity and she sort of wanted it to be over so she could go to the meet and greet. She groaned internally and tried to find that happy spot she was in before, but it just wouldn't come.

* * *

An hour later Beca was drying her hands on her jeans. Again. And Chloe was still staring at her. Really, so was the rest of the group and Fat Amy was making comments about how "their fearless leader looked like she was about to get eaten by a crocodile." Which, honestly Beca wasn't sure was far from the truth.

"Beca," Chloe said, unable to wait any longer. Beca had brushed her off as they were leaving the concert, walking towards the merch tables again, but now here they were again in front of DSM's merch table instead of the one set up for Muse. "You're here to see the blonde hot one." It wasn't a question this time.

Beca looked away and shifted from foot to foot. "Um, no, I mean I liked all of them. Why can't I just want to talk to all of them without getting the third degree, geeze."

"Because I saw her wink at you," Chloe said.

And now Fat Amy and Stacie were betting on which hot blonde one Chloe meant and Aubrey was looking over Beca in that way that always made Beca feel about two inches tall and stripped naked. She hated that look.

"It could have been at someone else," Beca protested weakly.

"You fell into Chloe. That was right after wasn't it?" Aubrey stepped forward, morphing instantly into the militant leader the Bellas had known three years before.

"Ugh, yes, fine, Jesus, she winked at me. I went to the merch table earlier to meet her. That's why I have this hoodie." She held it out and shook it. "Now can we drop it because we are almost at the front of the line and I really don't want to look like an idiot."

"Well, more than you already have, if you fell over after she winked at you," Fat Amy said.

"Thank you for that confidence boost, Amy," Beca growled.

"You're welcome. If you need it I have some more butt confidence for you."

"No!" Beca moved away from her while Stacie snickered.

"Hey, if it's the leader woman who was singing that Beca has the hots for, I'd totally do her. You have good taste," Stacie said when she stopped laughing.

Beca had to simultaneously keep herself from blushing and strangling Stacie. She already felt proprietary claim over a woman she hadn't really met and didn't even know her name. She needed to reign it the fuck in, but of course she couldn't do that because that would take the self control that had left her apparently the second that DSM had gotten on stage.

But then they were suddenly at the front of the line again and Beca was face to face with the goddess of a woman, and nothing mattered. She felt her group scatter to other members. Stacie sidled up to a with long black hair and eyes a little blue lighter than Beca's goddess, still dressed in all the leather and mesh they'd worn on stage, a flirty smile on her face. Chloe and Aubrey somehow ended up in front of the beatboxer and Aubrey was sort of hounding him about technique while Chloe looked at Aubrey with a lovesick expression on her face. And of course Fat Amy went right for the male soloist, but not before muttering about man candy.

"Uh, hi," Beca said, walking forward, thankful that she was at least semi-alone now.

"Hello again, little mouse. How was the show for you?" The woman smirked.

Beca couldn't stop staring at her perfect face, smile, everything. "I really liked the song 'Undisclosed Desires' they did it really well tonight. It was special."

"Yes, I felt the same way." Her eyes swept over Beca's form slowly, lingering.

Beca felt so fucking hot in that moment. She wasn't sure she wasn't going to catch on fire, but what a way to burn, caught in ice blue fire.

"What's your name, little mouse?" the woman asked.

Beca actually had to stop and think about what her own name was. Oh, she was in for it. "B-Beca."

"Cute, it matches you perfectly." She looked down at the table, but Beca's eyes didn't shift from her head, tracing the line of her part, down over her shoulders, taking her in fully. She wanted to reach out and touch her, but knew that was way the fuck over the line. She did have at least some control.

"I bet your name is like angels singing. Except you already are an angel, so that wouldn't be hard." Beca could probably slap herself just for that. Jesus.

The woman looked up at her amused. She pushed a glossy photograph forward, signed, Beca could tell from a glance, but she really didn't look hard. Her eyes were drawn back to the blue ones looking at her, still smirking, still beautiful.

"Danke, maus. I would like to hear you screaming my name even more."

Beca's brain just fucking stopped. The woman in front of her couldn't have said that. Things like that didn't happen to her. They just didn't. Gorgeous women didn't just insinuate that they wanted to have sex with her. That was something that happened to rock stars. And the woman in front of her was the rock star not vice versa, though Beca wasn't fucking sure that she hadn't crossed into the twilight zone so she wasn't sure.

Chloe and Aubrey were suddenly behind her. "Hey, Becs, you done?" Chloe asked.

Beca wanted to claw her friend's eyes out, but in a loving manner because she was still Beca's best friend.

The woman smiled again. "Enjoy your night with your friends, little mouse. I'm sure we'll see each other again."

Beca took her signed picture from the table and Chloe physically dragged her away to go get Fat Amy, who was still talking to the German man.

"You couldn't handle all of this!" Amy said in her normally over loud voice.

"Oh, I don't think I want to," the man said, eying security, but not calling them over. At least someone was having less of a chance flirting, though Fat Amy's flirting style was usually hit or miss depending on the guy. This one just wasn't biting.

"Fine, I eat German chumps like you for lunch!"

Chloe tapped on Fat Amy's shoulder. "Come on."

"All right, Red, fine. But let it be known that this one is an idiot." She gestured at the German man who looked offended, yet amused, and also maybe slightly turned on. Which was how most guys felt around Amy, so it was normal.

Beca followed them out in a daze, not really registering when Stacie popped up again, smirking, lipstick a bit smudged, and a number on a scrap of paper. And damn if Amy had been worse, Stacie was always better. Beca almost felt like asking for tips on how to get with her angel. Almost. She wasn't that desperate yet, because that would totally lead to all of the Bellas getting in on it and holy Jesus, no.

"Alcohol?" Chloe asked.

"God, yes please," Beca said and the rest of the group agreed.

"Awesome, I know this club a couple streets over." She smiled as she turned to Aubrey. "Be our designated driver, love?"

"Of course."

Beca never could figure out how Chloe had Aubrey so damn wrapped around her finger, but she figured it had something to do with sex, and she really didn't want to know. Except now that led her to thoughts of sex with another blonde woman, and ugh she really needed that alcohol.

"Come on then!" Chloe bounced forward and out into the night and Beca could tell that this was going to be one of those nights that weren't all there come morning. She found that she didn't mind, so long as she remembered her angel and followed Chloe outside.


	2. 2: Panic Station

And we're back. Credit to the fountain and the white t-shirt goes all to Valnixyrie, so all thanks for that image should go to her. You'll see what I mean. And with that, enjoy guys.

* * *

It was two days later before she could even look at the stupid DSM poster again. God, why had she been such an awkward idiot? But now she had an autographed poster of a very good group, she might as well hang it up. Not because she wanted to look at the blonde angel again or anything, no that was totally beside the point.

And maybe that trip to the craft store for one of those stupid poster frames wasn't strictly necessary, but it _was_ autographed. It could be worth something someday. Because that's why she totally did it and spent like forty-five minutes sorting through the frames to find one that was the right god damn size. God, who even made posters in such a weird size? Germany, apparently.

So now here she was sitting on her bed, assembling the damn frame and about to unfurl the poster and mentally preparing herself to see the woman again. Except it wasn't going to be as good because it wasn't the real deal, but obviously since she couldn't handle the real deal maybe that was a good thing.

She took a deep breath and started to unroll the poster. She got all the way to the middle before the blonde was revealed to her and then she had to stop and take a break. Jesus Christ on a cracker Batman. No one was supposed to look like that in a picture. She shook herself. She was not going to be like this. She wasn't going to be one of those awkward fangirls that swooned every single time that the rockstar of their obsession blinked damn it.

Beca unrolled the poster the rest of the way and froze. In bright silver marker there was more than just a signed named. A lot more. Holy shit.

"To Beca, my little mouse, I'm glad I got to meet you. Your compliments were quite lovely. Perhaps you can continue to do so? -Mina" And beside that was a phone number. Holy shit. The blonde angel-Mina apparently, had left her phone number on the poster. Left her _number_. Two days ago. Oh my god she had probably blown it to kingdom fucking come by not texting her the next day.

She carefully put the poster in the frame, not want to ruin all her work, but after that she got up from the bed and started to pace. How the fuck could she have not noticed that? Who just didn't realize that some intensely hot German woman left their number and wanted her to use it? In a _blatantly flirtatious way_ at that. Of fucking course she did. She was the world's biggest fucking idiot.

Fat Amy came in who knew how long later. "Whoa, what's up with you, short stuff?"

"Nothing, it's nothing."

Amy just stared at her, not blinking, standing in the doorway to their room.

Beca grew uncomfortable rather quickly. "Ugh, fine." She pointed at the poster on wall. "The lady from DSM left her number on the poster and I totally didn't notice until now."

Amy just shrugged and stepped into the room, shutting the door behind her. "Yeah? The hot blonde? So? Just text her now."

"I can't do that! It's been two days. Obviously by now she thinks I hate her or I'm not interested or something. Or, worse, she thinks I'm straight. I don't even know how the fuck I missed that. How could I miss that she left her number. I should just crawl in a hole and die or something."

"Becs, it's a mistake, dude. And you had your head so far up that German lady's ass at that concert it's no fucking wonder you missed it. I bet she had a very nice ass. The leather pants made it seem so."

"Amy! That's not the point right now! I mean I already made a complete fool out of myself at the concert and now this? No, obviously it's not meant to be." Beca ran her hands through her hair and let out a massive sigh, feeling exasperated. "I think- I think I just need a shower. Or something. I'll be back in a bit."

"Yeah, I'm going to go with or something. Rub one out short stack, you'll feel better!" Amy yelled after her.

Beca groaned loudly. She did not need that right now. Because of course now all she could think about was touching herself while imagining the blonde, or maybe the blonde doing that to her or even Mina doing that to herself and- Jesus. She needed Jesus. She needed Jesus right now. Take her to church.

Right. Shower. Clear her mind. Not think about sex. Not do anything other than cleaning herself. That was the mission right now. She could do it. She was an adult. Right?

She turned on the water. One way to keep her mind off of everything was music. Music always worked to distract her from literally everything. It was why she was here after all. She grabbed her phone, clicked on her Muse station on Pandora, turned up the volume all the way, plopped it in a glass by the sink and relaxed as the first strains of the first part of Exogenesis Symphony played. She loved the beginning part of this song. It was almost relaxing. Just what she needed.

She stepped into the shower and started to wash her hair, taking comfort in the familiar movements and the music. The song changed and Beca waited to see what would come on next. She froze a second later, reaching for the conditioner. It couldn't be. Why the hell would they be on Pandora. On Muse's station. She had to have it wrong. But she so totally didn't because a second later a familiar voice was coming through the speakers.

"I was on a heavy tip

Trying to cross a canyon with a broken limb

You were on the other side, like always

Wondering what to do with life

I'd already had a sip

So I'd reasoned I was drunk enough to deal with it

You were on the other side, like always

You could never make your mind"

Beca shivered. That was Mina. She'd heard this mashup two days ago. It had been wonderful. 'What Kind of Man' by Florence + The Machine paired up with 'Love the Way You Lie' by Eminem. 'What Kind of Man' had been sped up slightly to match, but really the songs were well paired.

The lead man's voice broke her little trance. "I can't tell you what it really is

I can only tell you what it feels like

And right now there's a steel knife, in my windpipe

I can't breathe, but I still fight, while I can fight

As long as the wrong feels right, it's like I'm in flight

High off of love drunk from my hate

It's like I'm huffing paint and I love it the more that I suffer

I suffocate and right before I'm about to drown

She resuscitates me, she fucking hates me,

And I love it, wait."

Mina came back in and Beca's body started to heat from anything but the water. Good music had always excited her, but never like this. This was all Mina. Oh holy hell, why hadn't she noticed the number earlier.

"What kind of man loves like this?

What kind of man?

What kind of man loves like this?

What kind of man?

You're a holy fool, all coloured blue

Red feet upon the floor

You do such damage, how do you manage

To have me crawling back for more?"

Beca felt her hands slipping along her slick skin. She was totally not about to do this. She wasn't. But her body said she totally was. Until the man's voice came on again and she had a moment to stop herself, break the trance, keep everything PG.

"You ever love somebody so much

You can barely breathe, when you're with them, you meet

And neither one of you, even know what hit 'em,

Got that warm fuzzy feeling, yeah them chills, used to get 'em

Now you're getting fucking sick, of looking at 'em

You swore you've never hit 'em, never do nothing to hurt 'em,

Now you're in each other's face,

Spewing venom, and these words, when you spit 'em

You push, pull each other's hair, scratch, claw, bit 'em,

Throw 'em down, pin 'em, so lost in the moments, when you're in 'em

It's the rage that's the culprit, it controls you both."

Really the pairing of this mashup with their other ones, it had been brilliant thematically. All about fucked up love and how wrong it could really go. She wondered who had thought of it. She desperately hope it wasn't Mina. If she thought of a theme like that, well, what was really the chance that she believed in anything more than a one night stand? And Beca would totally go for a one night stand with someone that fucking perfect, but really, that wasn't what she truly wanted. Which was ridiculous because she had talked to the woman twice, only knew that she was in a band touring with Muse, and just found out her name was Mina because of a stupid autographed poster. Ugh, she was so gone on this woman for no reason.

But then Mina was singing again. "What kind of man loves like this?

What kind of man?

What kind of man loves like this?

What kind of man?

But I can't beat ya, cause I'm still with ya

"Oh mercy, " I implore ("Oh mercy, " I implore)

How do you do it? I think I'm through it

Then I'm back against the wall"

She really did sound like a fucking angel. Beca could practically feel the pain in her voice singing about all of this. It was like she was acting and singing at the same time. It was wonderful.

"Now I know we said things, did things

That we didn't mean and we fall back into the same patterns

Same routine, but your temper's just as bad, as mine is

You're the same as me, but when it comes to love, you're just as blinded

Baby please come back, it wasn't you,

Baby it was me, maybe our relationship isn't as crazy as it seems

Maybe that's what happens When a tornado meets a volcano

All I know is I love you too much, to walk away now

Come inside, pick up your bags off the sidewalk

Don't you hear sincerity, in my voice when I talk,

Told you this is my fault, look me in the eyeball

Next time I'm pissed, I'll aim my fist at the dry wall

Next time, there will be no next time

I apologize even though I know it's lies

I'm tired of the games, I just want her back, I know I'm a liar

If she ever tries to fucking leave again

I'm a tie her to the bed and set this house on fire"

Beca blinked, knowing it was all just a song, but feeling a rising wave of protectiveness anyway. This was stupid, feeling like this. She didn't do feelings. But here she was, shivering even in the hot water because she was so affected by a song as it's last verse came in, Mina and the other lead singing together, voices overlapping, while the rest of DSM in the background sang what kind of man over and over.

"Just gonna stand there and watch me burn

But that's alright, because I like the way it hurts

Just gonna stand there and hear me cry

But that's alright, because I love the way you lie."

The song faded out and Beca shook herself as the next one came on. She could finally function once again. She grabbed the conditioner and hurried through her shower, ignoring the little pings of sensation that were still flowing through her body. She got out and dried off.

Ok, so that hadn't been as relaxing as she'd wanted it to be, but whatever. She could handle it. It was only a song. And a missed opportunity to get with literal perfection. No big deal.

Totally a big deal.

She put on her robe and walked back out into her room. She picked up her cell phone and her eyebrows rose. She had a message from a number she didn't know. It did look a little familiar though. She glanced at the poster that Mina had signed and stopped. She felt her entire body go into minor shock. It was the same number. Except for that to have happened, she had to have texted first. And she hadn't. And the only other person that knew that this was a thing going on was Amy.

"Amy!" She yelled loud enough for the whole house to hear her.

Amy showed up a minute later. "Whoa, where's the fire?"

"You texted her!" Beca held out her phone accusingly.

"Of course I did, Becs, you didn't have the lady balls to do it yourself so I did it for you. Consider it payback for all those times I've taken twenty bucks from your purse and you pretend not to notice."

Beca stopped short at that. "Wait, what?" She shook herself. They could totally come back to that.

"Oh nothing, hey, Germans totally know how to sext, I'm just telling you." She winked and walked right back out of the room with no shame.

There was something else in that statement that Beca was going to have to think about later. Once this whole Mina situation was dealt with.

She opened up her messages and scrolled to what Fat Amy had sent for her.

" _Hey you ruddy sex goddess. It's Beca, the short chick from Atlanta._ " God dammit, Amy. Couldn't she have just said 'hey it's Beca from Atlanta' or something? Of course not, that'd be too damn normal. Then again, it was Amy. It could have been worse, thinking about it. Beca continued to read, anxious to see what the blonde had replied to that mess of a text.

" _Maus! I was beginning to think I had misjudged the situation- or that you had been viciously murdered on your way home from the concert. Good to know neither are true…_ " Misjudged the situation, meaning what exactly? How did someone someone as perfect as Mina misjudge anything? Oh god this was going to be a long ass night.

" _No, no, still alive and (sort of) breathing here. No vicious murders. Sorry it took so long to contact you, I actually didn't see your number until today when I put the poster up. At the concert, I was a bit… distracted, to say the least_." God, she even rambled in text. Why couldn't she just say one human thing to this woman?

"' _Sort of' breathing? How can one be 'sort of' breathing, I don't understand?_ " Beca mentally facepalmed. Why the fuck had she said that. In actuality, she was barely breathing because the epitome of perfection was freaking texting her right now, but she couldn't exactly say that to her, could she? Not without sounding like the stalker of the century.

" _Oh, I just got back from a run. Trying to catch my breath haha_." Yeah, that worked. For now at least. And making Mina think she worked out on the regular didn't hurt either.

" _Nice to know you keep physically fit, maus. We can use that to our advantage. ;)_ " Holy shit. She couldn't have read that correctly… right? There was no way Mina was insinuating what it sounded like she was insinuating. Except she totally was. There was no other explanation for that order of words. Oh fuck. Fuck her. Wait. Maybe that was object here. And now her brain was out of control with more images, and there went all the benefits of that shower.

" _I'm clearly not the only one. Have you seen a mirror lately? I mean, gods, does everyone in Germany look like they were made out of angel tears or are you just extraordinarily special?_ " Beca wasn't sure if she wanted to high five herself on the hand or the face for that one. Face. Probably the face.

" _Angel tears is a new one, I must admit. But I am special in only the fact that I am dedicated to my workout routine. There are only special things that I skip days for. You could be one of them._ " Where did Beca's jaw go? Oh, right, somewhere on the first floor, probably.

" _Well, if we're going to be using our physical fitness to our advantage, then maybe we can get a workout another way._ " Now that one, Beca actually high fived herself for. Coherent sentence. Thank you, Jesus.

" _Yes, I am glad we are on the same page I'm sure you would provide a very long, thorough workout. But alas, I'm in Mobile and you are in Atlanta."_

" _Oh, how is the tour going?"_ Wow. A safe, normal question. Was she actually alive right now? Was she running a temperature? Was she sure she hadn't been possessed or something? Whatever, she'd take the win.

" _It is going well. Pieter is eating his weight in fried foods as we speak. I, however, am staying far, far away from everything that's covered in fat. Do you know they have deep fried butter? Why do you Americans do such things?"_

" _Sorry, who's Pieter again? And I totally don't blame you on the fried foods thing. I feel like the nation's emblem should be a french fry or a Big Mac at this point, honestly._ "

" _Oh, Pieter is the other soloist. The really tall one with the uncontrollable eyebrows that I sing with. Unfortunately he is also my best friend."_

" _Unfortunately? How is he your best friend if it's unfortunate?"_

" _You would understand more if you knew him. He is a loveable, overly energetic puppy who has a tendency to eat everything he sees and tell very, very bad jokes. He also knows too many of my secrets and so I can never let him be free."_

Beca laughed at that. Chloe was totally like that, except replace eating everything and bad jokes with no concept of personal space and a tendency to hyperfocus on things, then yeah it worked. Especially the thing about knowing too much.

" _I get that. Sounds a bit like my best friend. Remind me to interrogate this Pieter guy someday so I can learn all your dirty little secrets ;)_ "

" _Oh he knows nothing of the dirty secrets, he is not my type if you understand my meaning. But he knows secrets, yes."_

Oh my god. Well there went literally any other doubts she might have that Mina was totally into her. Unless she was making all of this up in her head which was one hundred percent possible. What did she even do with this information? Probably continue on with the conversation. Yeah, that was a good idea.

" _Secrets are still very useful. Embarrassing stories are the best."_ Not that she thought that Mina had any, really, but it was nice to dream.

" _And you, maus, do you have embarrassing stories that I should know about?"_ And Beca could just picture the smirk that went with that text.

" _Uh, embarrassing stories, yeah, that you should know about, no."_ God. Fucking. No. She didn't want the people who were there to know about those incidences. She did not need the woman she was flirting with to know that she had a tendencies of falling on her god damn face because she was so uncoordinated.

" _Come now, Beca, you show me yours and I'll show you mine."_

This woman was going to kill her, Beca decided. _"Totally not going to be fair because you're perfect and you're embarrassing moment will be something like you were too perfect and stood out too much or something."_

" _I think you would be surprised. You'll never know unless you take a chance."_

Beca took a deep breath. Well, Mina had a point there. And what did she really have to lose? She didn't know this woman really. She could delete the number and pretend this never, ever happened if she needed too, maybe move to Saskatchewan just to be sure. She would handle it like a real adult.

" _Ok, fine. So one time in my Sophomore year here I was performing with the Bellas and my shoe came untied in the middle of the dance even though I'd double fucking knotted it. Of course I stepped on the lace dancing and fell straight on my face in front of a thousand people. And then accidentally rolled off the stage while I was at it. I went into shock because I was so mortified."_ God, she did not want to remember that day. And that probably wasn't her worst one. High school had been a bad time, but she wasn't ever diving back into those memories.

" _Oh my god, were you ok? Also, what kind of performance and who are these Bellas you speak of?"_

Well, that wasn't the reaction she was expecting. Laughter yes. Consoling, also yes. She hated both reactions really. But checking to see if she was alright afterwards, that was new. She frowned at her phone in thought. Huh. Slowly the frown morphed into a smile.

" _Yeah, yeah, I was fine. My pride wasn't at fucking all, but physically I was good after they carried me off and threw some water on me to snap me out of it. Oh, uh, I'm actually also in an a capella group, weirdly enough. The Barden Bellas, that's our name. It's just a college group sort of thing, no big deal."_ Really Fat Amy had just literally sat on her, but that wasn't something she felt the need to share. That had been another nightmare, and Mina had only asked for one.

" _Well, I am glad you were fine. Why didn't you tell me you were an a capella performer when we met? We could have actually had a conversation that consisted of more than just compliments ;)"_

" _Shut up. Moving on, now. So what about yours."_ She wasn't going to let her off the hook now. Beca was damn well going to get her dues for revealing one of the worst days of her life. At least Aubrey had been gone then. God, that would have been even worse. She supposed there were silver lining to everything.

" _I'll make you a deal, little fairy. I'll tell you one embarrassing story of mine if you promise to sing for me some time, ja?"_

" _Woah, woah! That was not part of the deal! You already said you would tell me if I told you one of my embarrassing stories. No changing the terms in the middle of a negotiation. That's just bad form."_

" _But then how will I ever get you to sing for me? ;)"_

Because she would do anything Mina fucking asked her too. That would be how, but she wasn't about to type that out.

" _Oh, I'm sure you'll make me sing at some point…_ " Did she seriously just send that text? God dammit.

" _I'm sure I will, too_." Butterflies. There were lots of them. Oh wasn't supposed to happen. Especially with a woman who travelled around with a band who Beca would probably never see again.

" _But seriously, that embarrassing story now, if you please. I don't care how much of a sweet talker you are."_

" _Fine, fine, persistent maus, I suppose I will tell you..."_

" _...go on."_

" _DSM has been on the road with Muse since the beginning of this tour. Our first stop was in Rome, Italy. We had a few hours to ourselves before we had to be at the venue and it was our first time in the city so we decided to take as much of a tour as we could fit into our schedule. We decided it'd be best if we all stayed together, trying to somewhat get to know each other before the real tour began so we wouldn't feel like complete strangers, you understand. So all of DSM, Pieter and myself, as well as Matt, Chris, and Dominic, were all together for this. I assume you've heard of the Trevi Fountain, ja?"_

" _I have a feeling I know where this is going..."_ Please involve a soaking wet Mina. Please involve a soaking fucking wet Mina. Please let there be pictures. She chanted mentally.

" _I'm sure you do. Pieter thought it'd be funny to push me into the fountain in front of all of the tourists, all of DSM, and all three members of Muse. On our first tour stop, no less, when I'm supposed to be the intimidating leader of Das Sound Machine. I still have not forgiven him for that, I doubt I ever will. I also didn't think it was possible for a human to nearly hyperventilate from laughter as Matt Bellamy did that day, but he proved my assumption to be incorrect."_

Thank you, skies above, a soaked Mina. Now, about those pictures.

" _Ha! I would've paid a good amount of money to see that. Please tell me he was smart enough to get pictures?"_

The conversation went dead for a few moments. Beca hoped she hadn't said something to offend the other woman. All those little fears flew out the fucking window when a picture popped up in their conversation window. If the brunette's jaw had been on the first floor a moment ago, she was pretty sure it was in the basement now.

The photograph consisted of Mina, sitting square in the water of what was probably the most famous fountain in the world, sopping wet with a mixed expression of shock, horror, and murder on her gorgeous features. The best part? She was wonderfully clad in a white t-shirt with the DSM logo in big black letters across the front. White t-shirt, had she mentioned that? White. And water. Wet, white t-shirt. Yeah, this was definitely getting saved to her photo library. And she was probably going to look at it way too often. Andy maybe do some ungodly things.

No, she was going to calm herself because that was wrong. Oh hell, what did she care right now? Hot fucking woman in a white t-shirt. She wasn't a saint. She didn't want to be. Sign her up to be a sinner any day. Wow, she really did need Jesus.

" _Oh my god. You look like you're about to kill him."_

" _Oh, I almost did. But then I just took his phone instead, grabbed my phone out of his pockets and shoved him in as well. Everyone clapped for my revenge. :)"_

Beca laughed out loud. A second later a picture of a soaked Pieter popped up. He didn't look happy, but he also looked like he knew he deserved it. He was also wearing the same t-shirt, and damn did all Germans have nice abs? Except Mina's were the only ones she wanted to lick. God damn it.

" _He had it coming."_

" _Oh yes, he only had himself to blame."_

" _Too bad I won't get to meet him. You guys aren't really coming back here anytime soon, right?"_ And there Beca went, making herself sad again. She should not do that. She should just enjoy everything that was happening, but no. She just had to be her normal Debbie Downer self.

" _Perhaps…"_

Oh the girl could not just end a text like that and leave Beca on the edge of her seat. _"Perhaps?"_

" _Well, we are stopping in Nashville for a few days in about a week and a half and taking a mid-tour break. Atlanta is only a few hours away. I know that Aren has been wanting to travel back to meet one of the girls who was with you; the tall one with the skimpy clothes. And perhaps Pieter, but he keeps vehemently denying it. Something about Inflexible Tina. Do not ask me. But we could all travel down together and visit. If you wanted, that is."_

Beca's heart beat picked up. Mina. In Atlanta again. For a few _days._ Oh my god it was like Christmas morning had come months early. Christmas in April. Where was her snow, because a miracle was happening, she might as well have some fucking snow.

She swallowed and typed out about three screaming messages before she managed to rein herself in to a much cooler. _"Oh, that would be really cool, actually."_

" _I'm glad you think so, kliene maus. I will talk with the others and get back to you about specifics."_

Beca's hands hovered over the keyboard for a second before she typed out, _"I can't wait to see you again."_

" _I feel the same way."_

Yup. It was official. She was dead. Mina had killed her. A hot woman had killed her. But she was totally going to reanimate in time for the meet up. Of course she was. She wouldn't waste a perfect opportunity.

Oh god, now she was going to have to thank Amy for texting Mina first. She groaned and slumped back on her bed. This had better be worth it because Amy would never shut up about it.

Then again. It was a German angel, who the fuck was she kidding, Mina would be worth it.

" _A week and a half never has seemed so long."_ She sent after a minute of just laying there staring up at ceiling.

" _True, but until then we do have text messaging, ja?"_

Beca had a feeling that she was about to get in over her head, but she didn't care. _"Ja."_ If this was the start of her demise, so be it. It was good way to go.


	3. 3: Liquid State

Thank you to those who've reviewed, favorited, and followed. We definitely appreciate it :D And Now, le next chapter.

* * *

Beca kept looking out the window every five seconds. It was sort of getting annoying, even to herself, she couldn't imagine what the rest of the Bellas felt watching her. Then again. Fat Amy was checking her phone every five seconds and Stacie was smirking over in a corner at her phone too, so maybe everyone else was too busy to notice her own neuroses.

She quickly came to the realization that she _really_ had to pee. But that was definitely not an option right now because what if she left to go to the bathroom and they showed up? No, that was not happening. She was not giving them even half of a second alone with Amy. Not way. But then again, what happened if she really had to pee when they got here and she had like an accident or something because she was an idiot and just didn't take half a damn minute to go to the bathroom like an adult. So. Bathroom. Or not to bathroom, that was the question.

Fuck it. Bathroom.

It was when she was exiting the bathroom she shared with Amy upstairs that she heard them. The accents were unmistakeable. _Damn it!_ She practically fell down the stairs- wait, no. She _did_ fall down the stairs. Very ungracefully, at that. Like Fat Amy going down the stairs on the Bellas' ceremonial sled ungracefully. And landed in a crumpled heap at the bottom. Fucking great.

"Little maus? Are you okay?" Mina asked, obviously trying her best to seem sincere but really _really_ wanting to laugh. Of course she had been standing there the entire time. God damn it. Beca should've just waited and gone to the bathroom later.

"Um." No. No she wasn't, at least her pride wasn't. "Yeah, I guess." She picked herself up off the ground, wincing a bit.

"Are you sure?"

Beca nodded.

And then of course Mina busted out laughing. As if the day couldn't get any worse here. But then again, Mina was in front of her. So. That did actually make things better.

"Crushed it, Beca. Good landing, I'll give you that." Amy said, coming up beside Mina, the tall one, Pieter, close behind.

Ugh. Why her? Did everyone see this? She peaked behind the group in front of her and saw Chloe, Stacie, Cynthia Rose, Flo, Legacy, Jessica, Ashley, and the other DSM girl. Of course everyone saw this. She was never living this down and now everyone else was laughing or snickering politely as Mina's laughter was apparently contagious.

Well, maybe that plan of moving to Saskatchewan wasn't such a bad idea. Eventually the group did disperse, leaving only Pieter, Amy, Mina, Stacie, and that dark-headed DSM girl- Aren.

Mina stepped forward. "I'm sorry, kleine maus, it's just once I knew you were alright, the look on your face it was priceless."

Beca pouted, but then Mina was cupping her face with one hand.

"Don't be mad at me, bitte?"

And then of course Beca was putty in her hands. And speaking of hands, holy shit, did this woman moisturize with infant blood or something? Jesus. "Fine, but next time maybe no laughing?"

"I can't promise that. You are a very funny person after all." Mina smirked.

Beca scowled but the expression didn't last long.

"Alright you two love birds, enough of that," Amy said, stepping up and pushing the two of them apart. "We've got plans, remember? To actually show these hot pieces of meat what a banging city this is." She whipped out a bunch of tickets and fanned them out. "It's totally aquarium time."

"Wait, when did we decide that?" Beca asked.

"Oh, last night, Stacie and I consulted you at like two in the morning." Amy shrugged.

"Amy, I was asleep at two in the morning."

"Oh well, you said yes, so."

"Whatever, aquarium works." She reached out for the tickets but Amy pulled them away.

"Uh huh, short stuff, you might fall down another flight of stairs and lose them. You'd be surprised how much those bitches charge for tickets like these, I'll not have you wasting the money I took from your wallet."

"I've only fallen down the stairs once in like four years!" Beca argued.

Amy glanced over at Mina. "I dunno if that record will stand as is but okay."

Beca looked over at Mina, who was smiling, amused at the Bella's antics. "You okay with the aquarium?"

Mina nodded. "Oh, I like aquatic life."

Aren snorted. "I mean, if you consider majoring in marine biology as 'liking aquatic life' then sure."

Beca's ears perked up. "You majored in Marine Biology?" She hadn't really thought of what Mina would do outside of performing. This wasn't what she had expected, though.

"Ja, DSM is something I stumbled upon in college as just a group of my friends having a good time. It took off my senior year so I didn't apply to grad school, but I can always go back." She shrugged.

"Alright, bitches, enough small talk. Let's go scare some fish! Or maybe go skinny dipping in the shark tank. I've done that before, it's a pretty cool story, actually." Amy walked out the door.

Beca just looked at Mina with an expression that said 'heaven help me, these are my friends' and followed Amy out with the rest of the group trailing behind.

The six of them piled into DSM's rented SUV, Pieter behind the wheel and Amy riding shotgun. Stacie had insisted she and Aren take the back seat for reasons Beca probably didn't care to hear about but probably would anyway because everyone knows Stacie is not one to keep her thoughts or sounds to herself. This left Mina and her maus in the middle row of seats.

Mina pushed Beca behind Pieter's seat. "Go first, mouse, that bear is so tall I can't ever sit behind him or my knees would be up by my head."

Beca immediately thought of situations that would be great if Mina did have her knees up by her head. Her mouth was suddenly dry and she was frozen in the middle of the seat for half a second before she managed to kickstart herself again and move. Trash, she was trash. Just take her to the dump.

And then they were both strapped in, and God, in confined quarters like this she could totally smell Mina and she smelled like warm cinnamon and it made Beca want to eat her up and Christ above. Mina reached out and took Beca's hand, interlacing their fingers and letting their hands rest on the seat between them. Beca's heart beat faster from such innocent contact. What was this woman even doing to her? Pieter and Amy were bantering up front. Beca was afraid to look behind her because she was pretty sure that Stacie was already trying to swallow Aren's face whole, and none of that really mattered because she was holding hands with Mina. What was she, tweleve again?

"How was the last stop on the tour?" Beca asked, swallowing down the lump in her throat.

"Oh, it was nice. It was a pretty large crowd, very responsive. It was a good show all in all."

"That's great." Beca squeezed Mina's hand and hoped to god that her palm wouldn't start sweating. That would be just so embarrassing she might literally die.

"I, however, preferred the show in Atlanta, but that may be because of certain company in the audience." Mina smiled over at her.

"It was the best concert I've ever been to," Beca said, gushing just a little bit.

"I'm glad you thought so."

"Who came up with the theme of your show? I liked the whole 'love is fucked up' bit." But on the other side of the seat she was crossing her fingers and hoping that Mina didn't say she'd come up with it. She needed to know this had a chance to get out of the gate first before there were thoughts of it never working out. She didn't even know what this was, but she needed to know about Mina's views anyway.

"It actually spawned out of a conversation we were all having about six months ago. We were talking about our favorite songs at the time and we noticed a common theme. Of course love songs will always exist, but those about love collapsing...there are less of them. It didn't take long to find those that matched up in narrative tone to tell a story. It turned out rather well, I think."

Beca was relieved. If it was a group idea, then Mina wasn't all cynical about love or anything. Good. She could work with that. "Uh, yeah, definitely. That mash up with Pompeii and Could Have Been Me, I would have never thought of it. Really I wouldn't have thought of any of them together and yet you made it work really well. Whoever does the mixes is really good."

Mina smiled. "Danke, I do the mixes. Pieter is focused on choreography, and Aren is in charge of the fitness regimen that all of DSM has to follow. We can't have anyone lagging behind, now can we? In anything physical." Mina's smile turned into a smirk.

Oh there was totally an innuendo in there. The woman was trying to kill her before they even got the aquarium. How was she supposed to deal with that when Mina was here in the flesh, holding her hand? She could barely deal with it when Mina was texting her halfway across the country. Now she was probably melting in her seat or something.

"Wow, um, no wonder you guys look so good then." Beca internally winced at that. Way to sound like a loser, Beca.

Mina's eyes scanned down her form. "Yes, you look good as well. Perhaps it's just something about a cappella singers."

"Uh, maybe not. You haven't been to the collegiate competitions. Oh my god, my freshman year there was a group at regionals with fucking sock puppets. I don't even know what the fuck was wrong with them."

Amy turned around. "They were from Florida. Maybe the gators got their brains. You gotta be quick with stuff like that or they'll get you."

Beca and Mina just looked at Amy for a second.

"What, have you ever come face to face with a ten foot long reptile in your life with huge teeth, I don't think so. I have. I would know what they're like."

Pieter spoke up. "So have you wrestled one of these alligators?"

And then Amy was launching into a story about crocodiles and how they were bigger and meaner than alligators, and how yes, she'd definitely wrestled one. Beca was glad Pieter was there to distract Amy so now she and Mina were sort of alone again.

"Please tell me that the sock puppets did not advance." Mina looked pained.

"Oh god no, the judges are crazy sometimes, but not that fucking crazy."

"Thank god for small favors then."

Beca smiled. "Yeah, the judges liked us that year. And every year since. We're actually the national champions."

Mina looked at least a little impressed which was great because no one else ever did when she told them that. "How interesting. Seems all you do is win, then."

Beca snorted. "Sort of, at least in a capella. In other things, not so much."

"Oh, but I think you've won more than you think."

Beca swallowed hard. "Oh, really?"

"Ja, it is yours if you only reach out and take it."

She looked down at their joined hands. Well technically she had already reached out and taken it. At least part way. She hadn't _taken_ Mina in that way. And there went her brain again. When was she going to learn not to let herself do that? Probably never.

The car stopped and Amy yelled. "We're here bitches! Time for fish!" She hopped out.

Everyone else followed at a slower pace, by the time they were out of the car Amy was already breezing past the lines up to the entrance. Seeing how long they were, it was a good thing she had decided to buy the tickets ahead of time, or they'd have been there all day. Beca wondered why in the world Amy was so excited over the aquarium. If she knew Amy, then she probably didn't actually _want_ to know. That whole skinny dipping in the shark tank was probably something she wanted to do. And probably with Pieter. Yup, she didn't need to know.

Once they were inside, the crowd thinned out slightly. Beca looked around at their group. Amy had Pieter by the belt and was dragging him to look at some weird turtley thing near the doors. Aren had her arm thrown over Stacie's shoulders and Stacie had hers wrapped snuggly around Aren's waist. Everyone else was just so couple-y. Beca didn't understand how they pulled that off with such ease. They'd all just met like two weeks ago and yet, here they were.

She looked over at Mina. Fuck it. She reached for Mina's hand just as Mina ran off, eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas morning. Beca cursed under her breath and hurried after Mina. Just as she was going to grow some lady balls. Of course.

She caught up with Mina a second later. She was practically plastered against the glass, a huge smile on her face. Mina looked back at Beca for half a second and pointed down at the bottom of the tank.

"Beca! It's a Tasselled Wobbegong. I've only ever read about them in books, I haven't actually seen one in real life."

"Wabba what now?" Stacie asked as she and Aren joined the pair at the side of the tank.

"Who said what about a dong?" Amy approached just behind them.

"A Tasselled Wobbegong. It's a kind of shark that lives on the ocean floor. This one is pretty small, but they can be up to 125cm in length, supposedly. Isn't he beautiful? Oh, wait, sorry, she. Definitely she."

"Ah, yes, Mina might have a thing for shark species," Pieter said from the back of the group.

"What? They are fascinating! There are so many different kinds that perform so many different functions in the marine ecosystems where they live. Unlike you, who just sits and eats everything in front of him. At least the sharks are productive." Mina folded her arms across her chest and glared at Pieter.

"Why the fuck is it named Wobbegong?" Beca asked.

"Oh, it's Aboriginal," Amy shrugged as if everyone should know that. "It means living rock. Though if you ask me, Pieter passes for a much better living rock." She winked at him.

Oh lord, another thing Beca did not need to know. Speaking of need to know, did she want to know why Amy knew that about the Wobbe whatever? Probably not. She'd probably just get another story about something Amy wrestled.

"Ok, but if you're like some expert on marine life, why in the world doesn't this shark thing eat the other fish swimming around?" Stacie asked, looking down on the Wobbegong.

"Oh, aquariums keep their carnivores well fed so they don't feel tempted to eat the other fish. If you walk around long enough you'll see a diver probably who's feeding them." Mina's eyes were still glued on the tank even as she explained everything.

Aren turned to Stacie. "I heard they had whales here. You wanna go?"

Stacie smiled and wrapped herself up tighter against Aren. "Lead the way."

"You have your phone on you, ja?" Mina called.

"Ja."

"Good, text us when you want to find us."

Amy turned to Pieter. "What about you, big boy? You wanna go find some dolphins to swim with?"

"I always have enjoyed dolphins, even when this one went on rants about how they are overly glorified." He gestured at Mina, rolling his eyes.

"Do not even get me started, Pieter. Go off with Tina and leave me to my perfectly correct opinions."

Pieter rolled his eyes right before Amy grabbed him by the belt again and tugged him off to a different part of the aquarium.

Beca was pleased that she was now alone with Mina. Well as alone as they could get in a crowd, but all her friends were elsewhere and that was close enough really. She stepped a bit closer to Mina and this time, when Mina unfolded her arms and dropped her hands to the side, Beca was ready. She reached out and took Mina's hand and smiled for the win it was. Mina squeezed her hand absently, eyes following different fish with rapt attention. Was that a blush on her neck? No, probably just Beca's overactive imagination. Yeah, that had to be it.

"There are just so many fish here, it's wonderful. The ecosystems that they can establish in such a space...it's just…" Mina sighed and shook her head like she didn't have the words to describe what she wanted to say.

Beca looked over Mina's face and smiled at the awe there. Big tough DSM leader, yeah right. In that moment she saw nothing of the sort, and it made her heart beat a little harder and a warm feeling blossom in the pit of her stomach. This was nice. She could stay like this for a long, long while.

She inched closer to Mina so their sides were pressed together and she could feel the body heat coming from the other woman. "Do you have a favorite fish?" Beca asked.

Mina shook her head. "Not really. Everything has its own place in its own ecosystem that is vital to that ecosystem to thrive and be successful. Picking a favorite fish would be like choosing a single favorite note in a song. They're all important, you can't just choose one."

Beca stared at her in awe for a moment. How could someone make fish sound poetic? That's just not something that should work, but Mina did it with ease.

The pair continued their trek through the Ocean Voyager exhibit, stopping every so often so Mina could go on a rant about a certain type of fish. Beca stared in awe as a massive Manta Ray glided by the glass. Mina quickly corrected her that it was a stingray, not a manta ray. A Leopard Whipray, to be exact. Whatever, it was still pretty.

They came to a stop at the edge of the tank. They were inside a tunnel, surrounded on all sides by aquatic life. Beca looked up just as a 30ft whale shark swam overhead. When she brought her eyes back down to the real world, she was met with the most sincere look she'd ever seen on a person. Mina was staring at her but not in a creepy way. No, she was more admiring her than anything else. Her gaze darted down to Beca's lips and back up to her eyes. Oh god, this was it. The brunette wet her lips with her tongue and began to lean forwards. Mina returned the favor, meeting her halfway.

Just as they were about to close the distance between them, Mina's phone went off followed shortly by Beca's. They jumped apart, each grappling for their own device. Mina fiddled with the screen for a moment. Beca read her text. It was from Stacie.

" _OMG Beca, you have to come see the Beluga Whales, they're so cute!_ " Dammit, Stacie.

"That was Aren. She says we have to come to the Cold Water Quest. Something about Beluga Whales being DSM's new mascot." Mina said, her brow furrowed in confusion. Beca laughed at this.

"Yeah, I just got a similar text from Stacie. Looks like we're headed to Cold Water Quest then, huh?" Mina nodded in agreement and the two turned towards the exit of the Ocean Voyager exhibit. Beca grinned when she felt Mina reach down and intertwine their fingers again. She could definitely get used to this.

It wasn't long before they entered the Cold Water Quest exhibit. Once they were inside, it only took a moment for Stacie to come bounding up to them and drag Beca away.

"Come on, come on, come on! The habitat is over here, you're gonna miss the baby beluga!"

"Okay, okay, I'm coming! Jeez." Beca scurried along behind Stacie. She could hear Mina laughing as Aren approached her and the two exchanged a few sentences in German. Beca tried to listen to Stacie go on about the Beluga Whales, but she kept getting distracted by the pair behind her. At one point Mina muttered something unintelligible to her cohort who then responded by gasping excitedly and slapping her on the shoulder.

Mina was quick to retort, saying something loudly in her mother tongue and looking pointedly at Stacie. Whatever it was caused Aren to blush like a fiend and storm off with a guilty grin on her face.

Stacie looked at Beca and smirked. "That was totally something about our asses looking good."

Beca squinted at her. "So suddenly you speak German now?"

"Nah, a girl just knows. Besides, did you see that cute blush?"

Beca chuckled. "I did see the blush. What's with you two anyways? You seem awfully cozy for only having known each other for two weeks."

Stacie looked away and rubbed at the back of her neck. Beca thought it had to be the only time that she'd ever seen the girl look bashful. About anything. Ever. "Sometimes you just click with someone, you know?"

Beca did know. She knew very well. She smiled and bumped Stacie with her shoulder. "And I'm guessing this is one of those times, huh Stace?"

Stacie grinned big and put her face in her hands. She looked like a teenager who just told their best friend about their first kiss. It was kind of adorable. And Beca knew that the changed behavior of her normally brazen friend definitely meant something.

"Yeah, yeah, call me out on being stupid and cute all you want but you know what?" Stacie said, her confidence returned and her blush fading. She leaned down to whisper in Beca's ear. "Your toner is showing."

Beca sputtered and took a step back. "No it isn't, what!? I- I have no idea what you're talking about."

Stacie eyed her blankly, clearly not buying it for a second. "Oh? Then you didn't try to kiss miss tall blonde and fearless a minute ago?"

The shorter woman stared at her friend incredulously, completely flabbergasted. "Wh- how did you-"

"Aren is a fast texter with a big mouth. I guess that's what your girlfriend told her to make her freak out a minute ago, she must've been excited over it. She told me last week that blondie hadn't had someone in her life in a while. She said she couldn't even remember the last time she had seen Mina so absorbed and smiley with her phone like she has been since you texted her." Stacie shrugged, the shadow of a cocky smirk present on her face as she looked back at the tank in front of them. "And then maybe she said that Aren was doing the same thing. And that's where the blushing came in. They're both totally whipped and there's nothing either of us can do about it. Sadly, though, the blushing was not over our asses, because we both have very fine asses."

Beca glanced back at Mina and looked her over. "But maybe not the finest."

Stacie rolled her eyes. "Speak for yourself girl." She grinned as she slapped her own ass which had everyone in the immediate vicinity looking at both of them with dubious faces. Stacie just looked back with a devil may care expression. "I'm totally too hot."

"And the understatement of the year award goes to..." came from behind them and they both turned to see Aren smiling there. "What? I get my opinions. Though, in this case it's more fact but..."

Beca snorted but nodded. "Yeah, I see what you mean, Stacie."

"Told you," Stacie said, walking over and slipping her arm around Aren's waist.

Mina came up behind Beca and did much the same. Beca leaned into the contact as she tried to keep her eyes from fluttering shut. This felt nice. They stood in silence for a few moments as a group, just watching the fish swim around them. One of the whales swam back and forth happily, playing with a child through the glass.

"Did you know that Beluga whales and Narwhals are related?" Mina said as the whale finally swam off, distracted by something else in the water.

"Seriously? Then why don't they have horns?" Beca asked.

Mina shrugged. "Evolution took them on two very different paths. But you see the bump on it's head?"

The rest of them nodded.

"That's an organ called the melon. It lets them use echolocation under water so they can find holes in the ice to breathe."

"Huh, cool, so they're like sea bats."

Mina looked at Beca. "I suppose if that's how you want to see it."

"It totally is." Beca smiled at her and leaned in closer. Mina's face lost all signs of protest over the validity of Beca's comparison. She felt extremely powerful that she could make such an intimidatingly hot woman lose her train of thought.

They all wandered around for a little while, seeing what their was to see until Stacie wanted to go see the dolphins. Mina looked at Beca with a clear question in her eyes and Beca just shrugged. It didn't matter to Beca if they went to go see the dolphins so long as Mina was by her side.

And so that was how they ended up by the dolphin tank at the exact moment that Fat Amy canonballed into the tank. Completely naked. Oh, Beca should have known she wasn't fucking around with her claim of skinny dipping with the sharks. Well, at least dolphins were a little safer, but still. How in the world did she even get back there? Surely there were like locks on the doors or something.

Nevermind it was Amy. Somehow she always found a way to accomplish whatever slightly illegal goal she had at the time. Why wasn't Beca used to that after four years?

Stacie, Aren, Beca, and Mina all looked at each other with wide eyes. They were not staying here to witness this. Another splash a second later and Pieter was in the water too. Beca turned her back on the tank. No she really didn't need to see any of this, though from the glimpse she'd gotten he had ridiculous muscle tone.

"I think we need to get out of here," Beca said.

"Seconded," Stacie said quickly.

"Please tell me Pieter didn't have the keys," Aren said as they all started to walk rather quickly away.

Mina frowned and shook her head. "He did."

"Well fuck," Beca said just as they rounded the corner and were finally out of view of the dolphin tank. "They're totally going to get arrested and then what will we do for a ride?"

Stacie looked thoughtful for a moment. "Well, I mean we are downtown. There's always stuff to do while we wait for them to call us to post their bail."

Beca glanced over to her. "What did you have in mind?"

"That nice, romantic Italian place is nearby, and I may know a club we could go to after. It'll take a while before their processed. We might as well enjoy it." Stacie grinned at Aren and Beca could already see that if they were going to the club Stacie totally had plans of grinding all over Aren. Beca brushed up against Mina again. Then again, maybe she should have the same plans. God, she already knew Mina could dance. She'd seen it on stage. To have all that pressed against her as music beat through them. She was going to need a cold shower afterwards but that was totally okay.

She looked at Mina for confirmation and Mina smirked at her. That was all the answer she needed. Somehow she knew that they were totally on the same wavelength.

"Sounds good then. Let's go."

They hit the stairs to the aquarium just as the first sirens of police cars came into hearing distance. Oh, this was going to be a very exciting night on multiple levels. Beca snuck a glance at Mina. She hoped it was a great many, many levels. And with a woman like that, it probably would be.

Mina took her hand again as they walked off further into downtown and Beca's heart fluttered yet again. Oh yeah, definitely.


	4. 4: Animals

So this took longer than normal because it's ridiculously long. Like 10k. So enjoy that. Also, Val has a comment to add: For the guest who mentioned Aren and Stacie, you're my favorite. Aren is a character after my own heart and I am glad at least someone is enjoying them together! :D And now to the story.

* * *

Stacie pulled them aside a couple of blocks later outside one of her preferred stores. She looked down at herself and then at the rest of the little group. "You know, we really aren't dressed to go out." She looked at the store and smirked. "But I think we can fix that."

"Bebe? You're kidding, right? Stacie, you know everything in this place costs more than our college education. Like… all of our college educations. Combined." Beca scrunched her face at the thought of spending that much money just on one outfit.

"What do you mean? College is free?" Mina stared at them. "Or at the very least, not expensive when enrollment fees are considered."

"Uh, yeah, maybe in Europe. But not in the US. I mean, I go to Barden for a lot cheaper than everyone else because my Dad's a professor there, but it's still like ten grand a year. Everyone else pays a lot more because it's a private school. What do you pay, Stacie, like forty-five grand a year?"

Stacie nodded. "Without scholarships, yeah. With I only pay like fifteen." She smirked. "Pays to be smart and look like I do."

Both of the Germans' jaws were on the floor. "Mein Gott," Mina said, shaking her head. "That is atrocious."

"You're telling us." She looked back at Stacie. "Which is why we shouldn't shop here. We're kinda broke, Stace."

Stacie pulled out a credit card. Beca looked closer. "What the hell, is that a Black Card?"

"Yup, pulled it from Amy's wallet. Something tells me she won't mind. Or, that she owes you anyways. Either way." Stacie pulled open the door and held it for Aren before following the dark-haired German inside.

"Your friend is, what's the word, loaded?" Mina said not far behind Stacie.

"A-fucking-pparently. You only get a Black Card if you're like super fucking rich. I've never even fucking seen one. Hell, I haven't even seen a Platinum card. American Express sort of guards those like gold. Or well, like platinum, I guess." Beca mentally facepalmed herself for that one. "I guess I should have known since she voluntarily came to school in the US, but still. I didn't know she was that fucking loaded. For fucks sake she steals twenty bucks from my purse every week."

Mina looked amused as they started to walk through the racks. "And why would she do that?"

"I have no idea. It's Amy, why does she do anything?"

Stacie snorted from across the aisle. "Amen to that." She pulled out a dress from the rack and looked at it thoughtfully. Then she looked up at Aren with a coy smile. "You, shoo, I want what I'm wearing to be a surprise. You go help Mina and Beca come over here and help me."

Beca looked at Mina who just shrugged. Well might as well. Surprising Mina would be cool, anyway.

She walked over to Stacie who drug her off across the store. Stacie kept sneaking furtive glances at the other two. "I can't wait to see what she picks." Stacie was practically bouncing on her toes. "I mean, she'll look great in anything, but…"

Beca looked over at Mina. "Yeah, definitely." She shook herself. "But we need to actually pick something out too instead of just staring."

Stacie looked for just a second longer before turning to the rack in front of them. "Right, right. Okay." She looked at Beca. "Finding a good skirt length for you is gonna be a bitch, short stuff."

"Hey! I manage." Beca pouted.

"Uh huh, and how long did it take you the last time we all went out?" Stacie started flicking through the clothes one by one, looking each of them over carefully before moving on.

"Like two hours, I don't know. I didn't exactly keep track. It was worth it, though, and you know it." Beca started going through another rack, frowning at everything. Clothes weren't really her thing, but even so, the stuff in front of her definitely didn't look that great. Maybe it was just the designer. She looked through all the stuff before moving on.

Stacie it seemed, was having more luck. She'd pulled out three things by the time Beca was done with the first rack. She had a huge smile on her face and was humming to herself. It sounded like 'Black Jesus + Amen Fashion' actually and of course Stacie would be humming Lady Gaga in the middle of a clothing store.

Beca spent the next ten minutes looking without much luck. She wanted something to wow Mina, but everything just seemed to missing something. Until she pulled out a deep red number, all lace with a mesh cut out at the shoulders and chest that would show a good amount of cleavage and the skirt looked short enough to be daring but not ridiculous. Definitely, yes.

"Hey, Becs, what about this one for you?" Stacie held up another dress, around the same length as the one she was holding, but deep blue with an even deeper mesh v in the front. It was elegant but it would look damn good.

She walked forward and took it. "I'll definitely try it on."

"Good, come on then." Stacie held up her huge pile of clothes. "My arms are getting tired."

They headed into the fitting room and Beca quickly slipped into the first dress. She looked at herself. She looked damn good. It clung to all the right places and made her boobs and ass look fabulous. She opened the door and walked out at the same time that Stacie peaked her head out.

"What do you think of this?" Beca asked, motioning to herself.

"It looks great on you. Turn around."

Beca did as instructed and turned slowly.

"Good, try the other one on for comparison. But first, what do you think?" She stepped out of her changing room in a deep purple dress with more cut out that fabric, but it still managed to cover the necessary places.

Beca looked at it. "I've seen you in better things. The color looks nice on you, but I'm not thrilled by the dress itself, you know."

Stacie nodded. "I know what you mean. It looked better on the hanger."

They both went into their changing rooms and came out a few minutes later. Stacie looked over Beca again.

"The red says fuck you but the blue brings out your eyes. And still manages to say fuck you, just not with the color, you know what I mean?" Stacie's fingers reached out and brushed over the deep mesh v. "This one, definitely this one. Wait turn around first."

Beca turned around and Stacie's fingers continued to trace the scooped back and around again the front.

"Yeah, this one. She's not going to be able to take her eyes off of you. Or your ass. Or maybe she's a boob woman. Whatever, either way you're covered."

"Awesome." Beca actually looked at what Stacie was wearing and considered the outfit. "Maybe, but-"

"I've looked better? Yeah, I feel that. I want something that screams 'fuck me hard in the back alley' and this isn't that."

Beca almost snorted, but then stopped herself. Because of course all she could imagine was Mina fucking her in a back alley somewhere and that probably wasn't supposed to be arousing but it was. Everything about Mina was arousing, who was she really kidding?

They both disappeared into their changing rooms and Beca slipped into her regular clothes before exiting and hanging the red dress on the return rack and flopping down on one of the chairs in the room to wait for Stacie to come out again.

She whistled as Stacie came out in tight black leather shorts short enough for sin and a mostly leather crop top with straps…. or was it _made_ of straps? Basically it was just a bra with a bunch of leather straps? She couldn't really tell just how it was constructed.

"I think if you were looking for fuck me hard in a back alley, you found it." Beca said bluntly, looking Stacie up and down approvingly.

Stacie grinned. "Ya think? I wasn't sure about this one but, now that I have it on… yeah, I think you're right."

"Aren's gonna eat you right up."

Stacie smirked and ran her hands over her body. "That's the plan. Let's get out of here so that can totally get underway. Like… now."

Beca blinked and shook her head as Stacie went back into change. Stacie was certainly one of a kind.

A few minutes later they were at the cash register paying for their dresses and shoes that Stacie had just casually picked out while they walked by. Beca had no idea how she did it, but they matched perfectly and fit perfectly too. Girl was scary when it came to clothes. A good kind of scary. But still scary.

As they were walking away Mina and Aren came strutting from the racks from a different part of the store, both smirking, both looking like they were going to take their prospective dates on the spot. Beca swallowed and had to wonder what the fuck that meant for whatever they'd just found clothing-wise. She was probably doomed.

"Ready to go?" Mina asked them.

Beca nodded. "Yeah, definitely."

"Good, good, I find myself rather... _hungry_." Mina's smile was bit more predatory than was probably considered safe.

They all walked out of the store and down the street a way before Stacie stopped them. "I know a place we can all get changed, come on."

Beca squinted at her. "How do you just know a place?"

Stacie just smirked and walked off. Right. She knew because she was Stacie.

They ended up outside a nice high rise apartment building where Stacie smiled at the door man and he nodded and let them all in without question. Beca looked at Stacie and decided that she probably didn't want to know, but was probably going to find out more than she wanted to know anyway.

Stacie led them to the elevator and up to the eleventh floor and then out to one of the apartments. She knocked on the door where a man answered. His face instantly morphed into a surprised look.

"Oh, um, hey there, haven't seen you in a while." He eyed the rest of the group. "What brings you here?"

"That favor you owe me? Can me and my girls change here?" She held up her shopping bag. "We're going out and we have to look our very best, you know?"

The man swallowed hard and Beca swore that she could feel Aren tense behind her. Oh hell.

"Uh, yeah, sure come on in. The bathroom is-"

"Straight down the hall and to the left. I remember. Can we commandeer your bedroom too, just for a little bit?" Stacie fluttered her eyelashes and Aren growled lowly. Mina grabbed onto her wrist and sent her a chastising look. Aren just shrugged a bit as if to say 'can you blame me?' Mina rolled her eyes but said nothing.

"Yeah, sure." The man looked a little steamrolled but then Beca and the rest of them were walking back into the apartment. Stacie gestured for Mina and Aren to take the bathroom.

"See you in a minute, girls." Stacie pulled Aren forward for just a second, whispering in her ear before flouncing off further down the hall. Whatever she had said had made Aren blush and smile like a maniac, so the crisis was probably averted. Beca just shook her head, shot Mina a look and followed her friend.

By the time Beca made it into the bedroom, Stacie was mostly dressed in her party get-up. She had Beca zip up the back of her totally-not-bra before tossing the shorter woman the pair of super strappy black high heels that she had picked out on their way out of the store. It only took her a minute to slip into her dress and shoes. Just as she stood up from fastening the last strap at her ankle, she felt Stacie's hands in her hair.

"I'm thinking we don't do much to it. You have a great neck, so an updo would look good. But you also don't want to lose any of the 'I'm beyond ready for you to fuck me' appeal. Maybe if we just…" Stacie tugged Beca's hair over one shoulder, leaving half of her neck exposed. "Yeah, that's it. Let me see you." She stepped back, observing her handy work.

Stacie whistled, "Girl, she is not going to be able to keep her hands off you, let alone her eyes. Just a bit of hair spray and a couple bobby pins and you'll be good to go." Stacie reached for her bag.

"You just have that stuff on you?" Beca asked.

"Of course, girls scouts always need to be prepared." She winked and went about fixing Beca's hair so it would stay. "You look hot!"

Beca scoffed. "Speak for yourself! I wouldn't be surprised if you were out of all that leather before we got to the restaurant once Aren gets an eyefull of you."

Stacie grinned broadly. "Okay, I can't take it anymore. We need to go see them. The anticipation is killing me." The taller girl grabbed her stuff and scurried for the door. Beca laughed at her enthusiasm. In truth, she was just as anxious to see Mina. She had no doubt that the woman was going to stun her. But what if the blonde didn't like the way she looked? Oh, god, if a glimpse of the other woman didn't kill her, the insecurities surely would.

The Bella pair reentered the main part of the apartment. Aren and Mina weren't out there yet which probably meant they weren't ready. Or they had bailed. Hopefully it was the former. The man who had so graciously loaned them his living quarters stood on one side of the kitchen bar.

He dropped whatever he was eating when he caught sight of them. Stacie merely smirked knowingly. "Hey Nate, is that big mirror still in the dining room?"

"Y- uh, yeah. It's still there." He stammered, his eyes trained on Stacie- well, anywhere but Stacie's face.

The bombshell in question smiled brightly. "Awesome, thanks!" She grabbed Beca's wrist and tugged her towards what was presumably the dining room. Once they were in front of a _giant_ mirror over a narrow table at the back of the room, Stacie dropped a large makeup bag onto the surface in front of them. Like, so big that Beca had to question how she hadn't noticed it earlier.

Stacie immediately went to work touching up her makeup, darkening up the eyes and perfecting her winged eyeliner. Beca took the liberty of helping herself to her friend's wide variety of mascara, coating it on, before thickening the eyeliner she previously had on. She finished only her touch ups just as a glass shattered in the kitchen. Beca and Stacie eyed each other before turning to follow the sound.

Nate was crouched on the kitchen floor, glass scattered all around him. As Beca stepped farther into the room, she realized what exactly had caused the commotion. And holy shit. If she'd had a glass, it'd be shattered too.

Mina and Aren stood in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room. Beca's eyes were drawn straight to Mina and she sucked in a breath. She couldn't help herself, she looked and looked, and it was probably rude at this point, but fuck, that dress was practically painted on Mina, black contrasting nicely with her pale skin. And who the fuck came up with the idea to put a zipper straight up the front of that thing? It was torture. And the brunette felt like giving the designer a round of applause because Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, it was a splendid idea. All Beca could imagine was grabbing it and yanking it down and having such easy access. And then Beca's eyes landed on the low cut top and, no there was no brain function anymore because Mina's boobs were just. Hngh.

"Mouse, are you okay? I think you might be drooling." Mina smiled and walked forward, strappy black heels of her own clacking on the ground. And thank god Beca had chosen rather high heels because otherwise Mina would have swallowed her right up. Not that she wouldn't anyway. Beca gulped.

"Um, I'm not sure."

Mina reached out and traced over the deep mesh V of Beca's dress. She leaned forward and whispered in Beca's ear. "Good, I am similarly...affected by your attire as well."

Beca couldn't quite believe that, but then Mina was pulling back and her eyes were blown wide and there was more black than blue now. She was actually aroused. Holy fucking shit.

Mina stepped back and gave Stacie a once-over, raising a perfectly sculpted brow in approval. "You look exceptional, Stacie. Actually, you look like you should be in DSM with all of that leather."

Beca finally managed to tear her eyes away from Mina _somehow_ and glanced at her friend. One look at Stacie and she saw the pure, unadulterated desire in her eyes. Beca followed Stacie's gaze to where Aren still stood beneath the doorframe.

The younger DSM member was dressed to kill. Or, in this case, dressed to impress, Beca presumed. She wore a black lace dress so short it left very little to the imagination with sleeves that stopped a quarter of the way down her arms. Her beaded black peep-toe pumps were seemingly glued to the spot where she stood, her jaw slack and her eyes hooded, staring at Stacie with just as much want in her blue irises.

Nate, or whatever the fuck his name was, for his part, couldn't fucking decide where to look. Stacie barely spared him a glance in all of this, mostly she'd just looked to see what the glass shattering had been, and that was about it. Not that Beca could really blame her.

"Well, looks like we're ready to go, huh?" Stacie asked, still staring at Aren.

Three different versions of "Yes," sounded a minute later.

"Awesome." Stacie actually managed to tear her eyes away and look at Nate. "Thanks for letting us use your bathroom."

"Yeah, definitely no problem."

Beca thought that he had probably gotten all the payment he'd ever need out of just staring at all of them. Whatever, they were ready for dinner.

Stacie walked up to Aren and offered her a tanned arm. Aren blushed just slightly and took it. "I should be the one escorting you."

"No, it's my home town, remember? You're my guest."

Beca almost gagged at their cute exchange, but then Mina was wrapping her arm around Beca's shoulder and she forgot about pretty much everything.

Stacie and Aren headed towards the door. "See you later, Nate, and thanks again."

This time Nate didn't get out any words because he was totally staring at Stacie's ass. Mina and Beca both glared at him, promising death with their eyes, before following their friends.

Once they were out on the street again, Stacie took the lead once more, leading them a couple blocks down then another couple over until they were standing outside an Italian place that smelled abso-fucking-lutely wonderful. Stacie stopped them outside the door.

"Give me just one second to work my magic. Usually you need to make reservations at least a week in advance, but I know some people." She smirked. "Though, if they aren't working I have my ways."

Aren looking slightly disapproving and Stacie stepped forward. She grabbed Aren's hand. "Remember what I said back at Nate's, totally still applies here. It's just for a table."

Aren softened at that. "Fine, fine, magic away then."

Stacie grinned and then was off through the doors.

"This magic, I take it," Mina said, looking through the glass as Stacie walked up to the maitre d, "it has to do with her… generous assets doesn't it."

"Oh, yeah, totally. She knows how to work it. To get anything. Literally anything," Beca said. "Once, while the Bellas were on tour last year she talked one of the reception people at our hotel to upgrade us all to the best suites in the place. It was great. I have literally never slept in a bed so fluffy."

Mina laughed. "I see. That must make life… interesting."

"You have no idea."

And then Stacie was back through the door motioning them though with a smile. "Come on, we've got a table. Cancelled reservations and all that." Her smiled morphed into a mischievous grin.

A minute later they were sitting down in a restaurant that was definitely one of the nicest that Beca had ever been in. Maybe Amy's credit card would be making another appearance to pay for dinner. She wasn't breaking the bank for one meal, no matter how good.

Their waiter appeared a moment after they sat down. She was short and plump with her hair bleached lighter than Mina's and half of her head shaved to expose the extravagant flower earrings she wore. "Hello, my name is Lyra and I'll be taking care of you this evening. Can I start you ladies off with something to drink?"

"Water will be fine for me, thank you," Mina answered curtly, flashing a winning smile at the waitress. Beca's body went rigid, watching the German. Until she felt Mina's hand on her leg beneath the table and then the whole world started vibrating beneath her, around her, inside of her. It was a miracle she didn't pass out from such a simple, innocent(ish) touch. Because then Mina's fingers were making small circles on her thigh and holy fuck. The woman was out to kill her. Totally.

She had to swallow hard before she answered the waitress's question. "Um, sweet tea please."

"Okay, and for you two?" The waitress nodded, jotting down what Beca said before turning to Stacie and Aren.

"We'll get the… Nobilo, please. Just bring the bottle, if you wouldn't mind," Stacie said, her eyes glued to her menu when Aren spoke up.

"I love your earrings." The dark-haired DSM member said, reaching up and toying with the long floral jewelry. She appeared to have about as many personal space issues as Chloe. The action made the waitress blush deeply as she cast her eyes downwards. Stacie's eyes shot up at the interaction, narrowing her gaze.

"Thank you, they were my grandmother's actually-"

"Oh, can we get some extra parmesan too, please? Thanks!" Stacie interjected, leaning into Aren's personal space, wrapping a long arm around her shoulders and placing her other hand atop the German's knee. Mina snickered quietly to herself. Beca outright snorted and shook her head at the pair. But the brunette's laughter was quickly halted when she felt the fingers on her thigh creep further inwards. She nearly choked on her own breath and had to keep herself from a hysterical coughing fit.

Mina caught the slip and smirked devilishly.

"Certainly, I'll be right out with your drinks," the waitress said awkwardly before taking her leave. Poor thing, Beca almost felt bad for the girl. She knew from personal experience that her group was a bit intimidating to say the least. Throw in Stacie basically climbing onto Aren's lap with a look that said "do not touch, this is mine, move along" and they were downright terrifying at points.

"You, missy! You were so flirting with her!" Stacie said, grinning, as she playfully smacked Aren's shoulder. Aren simply chuckled.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, meine Prinzessin," Aren replied cheekily.

Mina snorted. Actually snorted indignantly. And it was adorable. "Sie sind lächerlich."

Aren shot her a glare and stuck her tongue out. Mina gasped dramatically.

"How dare you treat your Kommissar in that way, I am very disappointed in you, Ararinda."

Stacie interrupted. "Wait, what, what did she say? What did you call me?" She turned to Aren. "And, hold on, your real name is Ar… Ara…"

"Ararinda. Her name is Ararinda, and she called you her princess. Isn't that sweet?" A man's voice sounded from a few feet away. Pieter and Amy approached the table. Pieter was dressed in a long sleeve shirt that seemed to be made entirely out of mesh. Thankfully, he had a black jacket covering _most_ of his torso. Amy was… well… Amy was wearing a gorgeous black dress. And a cape. An actual cape. A full on, pink on the underside, black on the outside cape that looked to be actually attached to the dress.

As the pair approached, Pieter ruffled Aren's hair, causing her to angrily swat at his appendages before hastily pawing at her hair to correct the damage. Upon hearing this, Stacie looked at the girl like she had hung the moon in the sky herself, snuggling closer to give her a gentle peck on the cheek and causing Aren to blush further.

"She's so cute, isn't she? Aren and her princess, how adorable." Mina teased, poking her youngest DSM member in the ribs, a big smile on her face as she clearly enjoyed taunting her friend.

"Oh, hush you, Mina. You literally call Beca a mouse on a regular basis, you have no room to talk," Pieter said chastisingly, pulling two more chairs up to their table. Mina's grin vanished and her frosty cheeks tinted pink.

"Ja, and I would be careful what you say to me, oh mighty _Kommissar_. I'll add fifty push ups to your routine if you don't watch out. You won't be able to use your arms for _anything_ fun then." Aren snarked in reply, a mischievous glint in her light eyes.

"Wait, so, if I may interrupt," Beca interjected. "Weren't you two arrested?"

"Oh yeah, I mean, it was just a formality that they had to take us down to the station. The guys down in the 17th owe me a favor." Amy smirked. "We even had time to shop on our way here." She flapped her cape around. "Gotta be spiffy when I grind up all over this one later."

Beca groaned. She didn't need to know that. Any of that. What sort of cops owed Amy a favor? No, no not going there.

"So they just let you go, no charges, nothing?" Beca asked.

"Nope. They even gave us coffee. The water was a little chilly, but that warmed us right up." Amy none too subtly grabbed onto Pieter's thigh dangerously high up. Pieter just smiled cockily and did nothing else.

"Oh my god." Beca groaned and put her head down on the table for a split second before sitting back up again.

Stacie slipped out Amy's credit card. "Well, since you went and got yourself arrested, even if there were no charges, I cashed in that favor you owed me. So thanks for tonight's wardrobe and dinner." The tall Bella winked before leaning back against her chair and entangling her arms around Aren again. Forever the queen of PDA, that one, and not a care in the world to accompany her title.

Amy just waved it off. "No problem. Put the drinks at the club on it too. So there will be a few less hundreds when I bathe in my money. No biggie."

Beca at this point couldn't tell if Amy was actually serious. Then again, when had she ever been able to tell? Whatever.

The waitress popped back up again, tray full of glasses and drinks. She set down two empty wine glasses in front of Stacie and Aren. She lingered a little while longer than she should have, bent over the table right beside Aren. Stacie's eyes narrowed and she gripped just a bit harder onto her totally-not-girlfriend. But then Lyra was off setting down Beca's sweet tea and Mina's water and everything seemed to calm down a bit. Or at least Stacie didn't look like she was about to initiate a cat fight. Which was an upgrade so whatever.

"Hello," Lyra said to Pieter and Amy, "I'm Lyra and I'll be your server. Would you like anything to drink?"

Amy looked at Pieter. "What about you Big Boy, are you a red or a white kind of man?"

"Red," Pieter said. "White tastes like bad grape juice."

Beca looked at him. "That's because wine _is_ bad grape juice, dude."

Mina snickered beside Beca. Her fingers rose just a bit higher and Beca thought she was going to need Jesus soon, or at least a new pair of underwear.

"Whatever." He rolled his eyes.

Amy shrugged. "Whatever your best red is then. The bottle. Might as well get our pre-game on."

And only Amy would pre-game with an expensive bottle of wine before going dancing at a club. Geesh.

Lyra's eyes floated over to Aren. "All right, I'll be right back with some glasses and to take your order. If there's anything you need before that, anything at all, just give me a shout." She smiled brightly and walked off with what _had_ to be an exaggerated sway in her step.

Beca turned to Mina. "So what are you going to get?" she asked.

"I think I'm getting the Mushroom Ravioli. And you, Beca?" Mina was practically purring.

And she needed that new pair of underwear now, not just soon.

"Um, you know I'm really all for the classics. I'll probably just get Chicken Parmesan."

"Oh, but where is your sense of adventure?"

She was having enough of an adventure just on this fucking date, that's where he sense of adventure was. Or was this a date? They were out with friends, but like, everyone else was coupled up, so it was probably a date then, right? Oh god, she was going to make herself dizzy with all the thinking, even before she'd had anything to drink.

"It's around here somewhere, trust me."

Mina smirked at that. "Good, good, I'm glad to hear it. I'm sure you'll need it later."

And what exactly did that mean? The woman beside her was more of a mystery than a fucking Scooby Doo episode.

Lyra appeared again and set down glasses for Pieter and Amy. "Our sommelier will be out with your wine in just a second. But for now does everyone know what they're ordering?"

Everyone around the table nodded and Lyra smiled. "Good, why don't we start with you and then go around." She pointed to Aren and gestured the opposite way away from Stacie. As if that wasn't obvious. Beca shook her head. Stacie's glare was intensifying and the only thing holding her down was Aren's hand on her thigh.

They all ordered quickly. Mina got her ravioli, Beca changed her order last minute to Chicken Saltimbocca, just because it sounded adventurous. Amy got Veal Marsala, Pieter was boring and got a steak, and Aren and Stacie got some cutesy meal for two. The waitress pouted a little at that but covered it admirably. She smiled one last time at Aren before walking away.

Aren turned to Stacie. "You know that thing you said to me at that man's apartment? Well, same goes for you, Prinzessin."

And with that Stacie relaxed completely with a small smile on her face and blush on her cheeks. Crisis avoided yet again. Though Beca wondered what in the hell Stacie told Aren at Nate's that had her so relaxed to hear it back in turn. It would probably come to light eventually. Or she could just get the rest of the Bellas to hound it out of Stacie. Always an option.

Beca turned back to Mina to find her talking with Pieter in hushed German. Mina looked exasperated and yet amused. She had a feeling that was the exact expression she wore around Chloe most of the time.

After about twenty minutes of small talk and flirtatious glances among the couples, Lyra returned with a tray of food, followed by a tall balding man carrying another. Lyra set down the plates in front of the right people. She brushed against Aren more than she needed to but this time Stacie didn't even blink. Aren just smiled at her serenely, but nothing more.

Mina actually had to remove her hand from Beca's thigh to eat and Beca was so very glad that had happened. She wasn't exactly sure that she could have gotten anything in her mouth otherwise. Except maybe Mina herself but that was bad manners at the dinner table… right? Beca looked at her dish. She'd never actually had this before. She hoped it was good. She scooped some of it onto her fork and put it in her mouth.

She moaned a little louder than she wanted to, but damn it, it was just too good. Mina looked at her with hungry eyes.

"Is it good, mouse?" Mina licked her lips.

"Yes, oh my god. Try yours you'll see."

Mina lifted a piece of ravioli to her mouth, holding Beca's gaze the entire time. She slipped it into her mouth and started to chew. Her eyes fluttered shut and her face held an expression of pure bliss.

"Das ist gut." She blinked her eyes open and looked at Beca.

Beca swallowed. Uh, when had it gotten so hot in here? Right, probably about the time Mina started speaking in German.

Mina sliced off a piece and speared it with her fork. She held it out to Beca. Beca hesitated for a second before leaning forward and wrapping her mouth around Mina's fork. She moaned again, this time thankfully, much more quietly, but she knew Mina still heard.

"God, that is good. This place is just amazing."

"That it is." Mina smiled at Beca, and she got the distinct impression that Mina meant something else entirely. Oh my god, they were having one of those cheesy rom-com moments where the girl looked off and said the scenery was beautiful or some shit and the boy looked at her and said 'yeah it is.' This was actually happening in real life. Jesus above she didn't think it was possible.

Beca sat back again and wrapped some her pasta on her fork and offered it to Mina. Turnabout was fair play. But Mina didn't hesitate as she leaned forward and took the bite Beca offered. She sighed and licked a little sauce off her lips.

"You're right. It is very, very good."

Beca had to reach for her sweet tea a second later because her mouth had just gone very, very dry. She took a sip, sugar hitting her system like a little jolt, snapping her out of most of it. Most of it because around Mina she wasn't sure she'd ever actually be fully ahold of her senses.

Around them their friends ate, talking to each other, more like flirting with each other, if it was in the predetermined couples. Stacie and Aren were eating off of each other's plates about the same as they were their own. Beca wanted to snark inwardly over how ridiculous that was, but then again, she and Mina had almost done the same fucking thing a second ago, so she couldn't say too much.

And so the meal passed quickly with joking and teasing and more of Amy's inappropriate comments which were in turn intensified by Pieter. Dear god the both of them together was going to be a hell of trip for everyone involved. Stacie and Aren shared a dessert while the rest of them were too full to move really. Pieter and Amy sipped at the last of their bottle of wine. Pieter didn't look affected, but Beca could see the first flush on Amy's cheeks that meant she was on her way to buzzed. Lyra's attempts to flirt had decreased throughout the meal. She seemed to get that she didn't have a chance, with either German bombshell, for which Beca was grateful.

Amy handed over her card at the end of the meal, and then they were out on the street a few minutes later.

"So dancing," Stacie said, eyes already starting to sparkle. "Yeah?"

"Ja," all three Germans answered at once with varying levels of smirk.

Fat Amy just shrugged. "I didn't get this to go swimming with sharks."

"Amy! Don't you dare," Beca said.

"What? I just said I wasn't going to, gosh."

Everyone else besides Pieter just looked at Amy with a skeptical expression. Amy just rolled her eyes.

"Drama queens, all of you. Girl jumps in one dolphin tank and you act like it's the end of the world."

"Don't worry gummibärchen, they will get over it."

Mina looked at Pieter blankly. "Gummy bear? Really Pieter. And you teased me about mouse and Aren about Princess."

"What, you're just jealous of the nickname skillz that hooy morzhovy has." Amy latched onto Pieter's arm.

Mina started laughing so hard she actually had to look up to the sky so that tears didn't fall and ruin her mascara. Beca almost lost her footing at the glorious sound. When she could actually speak again she pulled in a stuttering breath and looked at Amy. "Do you know what that means?"

"Nah, I know it has something to do with a dick though. Probably a big one." She smirked up at Pieter who looked very satisfied with himself.

"It means walrus dick. It's Russian. At least, I think that was what you were pronouncing. You have a horrible accent. And it's an insult, not a compliment."

Amy just looked Pieter up and down. "Are you sure about that? Walrus dicks are pretty large."

Beca screamed a bit internally. Nope. No. She did not. And yet she did know now.

"Right, okay, dancing. Let's go do that," Beca said walking forward only to stop because she had no idea where they were going. "By the way, where are we going?"

"Just around the corner," Stacie said mischievously, a devilish glint in her eyes.

After a short walk about three blocks away, the group began to hear- and _feel_ heavy bass. As they approached the sound, Beca could see flashing lights coming from a singular door positioned on the side wall of a big, square, black building. They reached the door moments later only to be stopped by a large, brooding man in a black t-shirt that was _far_ too small for his body.

Beca felt smaller just looking at him, if that was even possible. Hell, Mina and Pieter even looked small beside him… Where the fuck had they found this guy?

"Sorry, full for the night," he said, his voice thick and deeper than Amy's pockets.

"Oh, Robbie," Stacie replied in a sing-song voice. Beca saw her give Aren's arm a squeeze before she stepped up to the man.

The brute squinted at Stacie. "Legs? That you? Aw, man, now it's a party! Where've you been, girl? You disappeared after that last night on Peachtree." The guy seemed way too excited over this. Beca felt her jaw on the pavement somewhere.

"Yeah, things got a little crazy that summer. Had to reign in the hunter for a while, if y'know what I mean!" Stacie laughed outwardly. "So, any way we can get in? For old time's sake?" The tall Bella batted her false lashes dramatically, her winning smile firmly in place.

"Are you kidding? Hell yeah! Jason would kill me if he knew you came by and I didn't let you in!" Robbie's voice boomed over the late-night Atlanta traffic.

"Awesome, thanks Rob! I owe you one," Stacie said with a wink before grabbing Aren's elbow and dragging her past the brick wall of a man. Unbelievable. That girl could talk her way into the President's panties, if she tried hard enough.

"Do you know everyone in this town?" Aren asked before they disappeared.

"Everyone who's anyone, sweetie, and you're the most important one of all." Stacie's voice floated back to them. Beca rolled her eyes so far back into her head, she was sure she saw some brain matter. So Stacie was the Queen of PDA and now the Sheriff of Cheesetown too.

Amy and Pieter were quick to follow Stacie and Aren. Beca glanced at Mina in passing and had to do a double take. The German was staring at her with hooded eyes that dripped desire from every lash. Had Beca done something provocative? She didn't remember doing anything. Though, she could hardly remember where her underwear was half the time so that wasn't really a surprise.

"What?" She queried, giving up the guessing game. "Why are you looking at me like that?" She felt the blush seeping up her neck and taking up residence in her ears but couldn't help the shy grin that crept onto her face.

Mina smiled softly before speaking. "You're just beautiful, maus. That's all. I got distracted."

Before Beca could say anything or even process what the DSM leader had just admitted, Mina's hand was snaking into her palm and she was being tugged through the club's entrance. "Come on, we'll fall behind!"

They made their way into the club, and it definitely was full tonight. Beca felt like she could barely move, but then Mina was cutting a path through the people easily and god bless giant German goddesses. Normally in crowds like this Beca almost got swallowed up. Which was ridiculous because she wasn't that short, but it still happened.

They easily caught up to their pack just as Stacie was perching herself atop a barstool… after some guy saw her coming and quickly offered up his seat. Beca would call it common courtesy if it weren't for his eyes being glued to- well, anywhere but her face.

Amy's voice sounded over the pounding bassline of the music. "I think I'm gonna take hotpants here out to the floor first! We'll catch you wankers later!" And then she was gone within the sea of bodies.

Beca herself really needed fucking alcohol to get through this night with some of her sanity intact. Of course alcohol might actually make everything worse, but that was a risk she was willing to take. She looked up at Mina who seemed to have the same idea and she flagged down the bartender easily with her height advantage and scary glare. She looked back at Beca.

"What do you want, little mouse?"

"Get me…" Beca thought for a minute. Alcohol, lots of alcohol. Ah-ha! She let a sly smirk overtake her features before finishing, "Between the Sheets."

Mina's eyes grew comically wide and she choked a bit on seemingly nothing. A dark blush became visible on her cheeks, even in the dim lighting of the club. Beca felt an overwhelming sense of pride flood her system knowing she could have this kind of effect on the usually stoic and badass blonde.

Stacie and Aren busted out laughing at the exchange.

"Sorry." She smiled none too innocently. "I meant get me _a_ Between the Sheets. The drink. It's good, if you do it right."

Mina turned to the bartender, a impish grin now in place, which probably should've worried Beca more than it did. "We'll have a Between the Sheets and a Screaming Orgasm, please." This time it was Beca's turn to choke on air. Like, a lot of choking on a very small amount of air because she actually couldn't breathe very well after hearing that. Holy shit.

The bartender, a tall, lanky man with stretched earlobes and scraggly hair, shook his bearded head and laughed. "You got it."

Their drinks were placed on the bar moments later. Beca admired the thin, yellowish liquid in her glass before taking a sip. The citrusy bite of flavor burned down her throat. She had definitely made the right choice. She glanced at Mina, watching intently as the German took a swig of her own 'Screaming Orgasm'. Yeah, she had _definitely_ made the right choice.

But that still didn't mean she didn't need a lot of alcohol to withstand dancing with the woman beside her. If ordering drinks with her, albeit, very suggestive drinks, was enough to make her choke on air, god even knew what dancing with her would be like. Yup, she needed that alcohol now. She picked up her glass and slammed the rest of the drink back in one gulp.

Mina just looked at Beca with an amused look. "Thirsty, little mouse?"

Oh she was thirsty all right. Just maybe not what Mina for was thinking. Or maybe for exactly what Mina was thinking. She needed to be a fucking mind reader because this was getting ridiculous.

"Let's dance," Beca demanded, suddenly feeling confident. Maybe the alcohol had gotten to her a little faster than normal. Whatever, as long as she had it, she might as well use it.

Mina grinned at her, tossed back her drink and set the empty glass upside down on the bar. "Let us." She grabbed Beca's hand and drug her through the crowd easily.

She barely registered Stacie's whooping and hollering as they walked away. She did, however, catch her friend telling the bartender to open them a tab. Such things were definitely important in this situation.

They reached the dancefloor a few seconds later just as the song changed to something with heavy bass, deep enough to shake her soul and a good beat. Beca closed her eyes. Once she got a feel for the music she started to move. She felt a little stiff and awkward without the alcohol to loosen her movements, but she was making it work. Hopefully sometime soon the alcohol would actually kick in and she'd be even better.

She opened her eyes to find Mina swaying, oh so seductively in front of her. Her mouth dropped open and Jesus, that was probably the sexiest thing she'd ever seen. And she'd seen Mina dancing before, honestly. But the Muse concert had nothing on this type of dancing. Club dancing was just. Guh.

Mina smirked at her. "Like what you see?"

"I've liked what I saw since the first time you stepped on stage," Beca said, her brain to mouth filter totally broken. She wasn't sure that she minded in this case though.

Mina stepped just a little closer. "And I've liked what I've seen since the moment you appeared at our merchandise booth." She cupped Beca's face for just the most fleeting of instants. Beca marveled in just how soft her skin was. God, this woman was so fucking perfect it hurt. She leaned closer and closer to Beca and Beca thought that this was it. That they were finally going to kiss. Her heart sped up. She just… she thought she was about to have a heart attack.

But then Mina changed course and was whispering in her ear. "Isn't it so nice that we have found ourselves in this situation then? Where we can explore this...attraction between us." She nibbled on Beca's ear for just a second before pulling back.

Beca's brain was fried. That was it. She was doomed. Dying on the dancefloor in a mass of bodies. This was how it would end. And here she'd thought she'd either die in some horrible accident caused by her own clumsiness or old in her bed or some cliché shit.

Then her brain restarted and she started to dance again. Oh, it was definitely hot in here. And not just in the normal club sense. But she could handle it. She was an adult. A very turned on adult, but still an adult. Right?

The music shifted and suddenly Mina's slender fingers were gripping Beca's waist and, oh, the room was spinning. No, wait, _she_ was spinning. Mina was spinning her around and pulling Beca against her front and oh sweet baby Jesus they were touching. Very, very, intimately touching. Beca felt her entire body heat up rapidly as Mina's touch slid up her waist and began to glide over her ribs.

The brunette's breath hitched in her throat as one of Mina's wandering hands found its way up, over her shoulder, and began to caress across her clavicle. Beca was surprised she was still standing at this point.

The couple continued to dance freely and comfortably, getting to know one another's physical forms as much as they could under the circumstances. Mina's marvelous chest remained pressed close against Beca's upper back and shoulders as they moved together.

When the song changed again, Beca grew bolder yet once more as she reached behind her, grabbing ahold of Mina's oh-so-toned thigh muscles and _wow_ she couldn't remember the last time anything felt so amazing in her grasp.

As the bass dropped for the second time, Beca gave those glorious legs a squeeze. She heard the faint sound of Mina's tiny gasp, the blonde's lips held in place beside her ear. The sharp intake of breath was followed suit by a low, throaty groan that the brunette felt more than heard as Beca's hands worked the tender flesh beneath them, relishing in the feel of Mina's ridiculously soft skin, left exposed by the shortness of her dress.

And, oh, that dress. Beca's mouth ran dry at the thought of pulling that zipper all the way down. She couldn't resist anymore. She released her hold on Mina's thighs and spun herself back around to face her goddess. They stopped moving altogether and everyone around them stopped mattering. They were so close, so very, very close. Mina was looking down at her with this warm but still predatory look and Beca felt turned on and a little bit scared at the same time.

She pushed up on her tip toes. Scared or not, there was one thing she knew she had to do and that was kiss the beautiful woman in front of her before she slipped through her hands like so much sand. They may not be in the same city for much longer but she was going to make the absolute best of it. Mina met her halfway down, the beat still pounding through them, syncing with their hearts. And then they were kissing, oh they were definitely kissing, but it felt like a transcendent experience. Better than anything she'd ever had before and all they were doing was almost chastely touching lips.

Except that definitely wasn't enough for Beca now. She needed more. Had to have more. Because if this was the only time she was going to make out with this woman, she needed to make it count for all those days she'd never see her again until the end of her life. She lunged forward and threw her arms around Mina's neck and kissed her harder.

Mina returned the attention ten fold, kissing with all that she had and Beca's body melted under her affection. Oh, she was ruined for anyone else, she thought. And really, she was completely okay with that.

Just as she opened her mouth to deepen the kiss further, Stacie appeared out of the crowd. "Beca! Beca, Beca, guess what?" The tallest Bella bounded up to the pair and shook Beca's shoulder excitedly.

Without waiting for Beca to actually respond, she continued, "Aren asked me to be official! Oh my god, I think I have a girlfriend. This is the most serious relationship I've been in since I was like, thirteen! Ahh!" she squealed, practically bouncing on the spot. No, she was definitely bouncing. And that strappy leather bra thing she was wearing was making that fact _extremely_ obvious.

Beca reached out and physically held Stacie in place. "That's awesome, Stace. Can we maybe talk about this later? I'm kind of busy here."

"Yeah, sure, totally! Eeep!" Stacie squeaked and her whole body vibrated excitedly before she disappeared into the mass sea of club goers.

Beca sighed. Now the moment was definitely broken, but Mina was just smiling at her. "Oh, how cute. DSM's little one has a girlfriend. And your friend is so excited to be her princess."

"Yeah, yeah, nice, but I think it could have waited a little bit, don't you?"

Mina nodded. "The timing was… unfortunate, but there will always be other times, ja?" She stepped closer. "Now is a very good time, I think."

"Oh, ja."

"Hey!" An obnoxiously loud guy's voice sounded off to their right.

Beca looked over to see an obviously drunk dudebro walking up to them with a cocky smile on his face. Oh, something she wasn't going to like was about to happen.

He looked at Mina. "So, pretty lady, you come here often?"

Oh my god, really, that line? What sort of idiot used that line seriously? Ugh, Beca just wished he would fly the fuck away like a moth or some shit. Something easily squishable. Yeah, that'd be nice.

"No, I find it rather hard to come here often when I live in Germany." Mina glared at him and stood up to her full height, a good couple inches above the guy in her heels.

"Foreign chick, nice. So like, you down to fuck for a night before you go back to drinking beer and eating sausage? Or you could stay here and eat my sausage. I mean, it's up to you."

"Kindly treat me to a few more of your stupid American stereotypes and you won't be taking anyone home. Ever again." Mina bared her teeth.

"No need to be feisty, little lady, I know you want it." He leaned back and tried to look as charming as possible.

"You have not seen feisty yet. Please kindly leave before you do. It will not be pretty for you."

"Ah, you're playing hard to get. That's nice. But really you shouldn't deny yourself what you want."

Beca stepped forward. "Dude, just get the fuck out. Obviously she said no. Very clearly, more than once."

"Get the fuck away, bitch, can't you see I'm making progress with the lady here."

"You're making no progress with her. She's not interested. No one in this club wants to get with your fuck face. So get the. Fuck. Out."

"And I told you to get the fuck away so-"

He didn't have a chance to get out another word before Beca was stepping forward and punching him right in the nose. Blood started spurting from his nose immediately and Beca smirked at him as she stepped back.

"Now are you going to leave? Because you just got your ass kicked by a girl and I don't think anyone in this club will go out with you now."

"You fucking bitch! I'll sue you."

Beca cocked an eyebrow. "You don't even know my name."

"I don't care. My Dad will find out from this shitty club's owners!"

"Right, okay."

"Is everything all right here?" Pieter walked up behind them, looking menacing even in mesh.

"Yeah, this guy was just leaving, right?" Beca asked.

Pieter glared at him and the dudebro paled a little bit. "Yeah, whatever, you bitches are fat and ugly anyway." He skulked away.

Mina looked at Beca and smiled. "Well, it seems like you are a very feisty mouse. You did not have to punch him, but I appreciate your help. My little hero." She leaned down and kissed Beca again lightly. "And also thank you, Pieter." She rolled her eyes. "Clubs can be so tedious."

"Right, though? Why don't we get out of here? I have some other things to do tonight. Or maybe some other people to do tonight," Amy said walking up to them. "Round up the other ones, they're probably making out in a dark corner or some shit. Pieter and I will go get the van, won't we big boy?" She winked at him.

And then they were melting back into the crowd. Beca looked at Mina. "Well, I guess we're ready to go."

"Yes, I suppose we are. But I would rather be alone with you any day. Music and alcohol can be found anywhere. Hotel rooms come to mind."

And suddenly Beca was totally fine with leaving even if it was a bit short. "I'll get the others."

"And I will make sure those two behave getting the car. I will meet you there." She leaned down and kissed Beca again.

"Okay then," Beca was a little breathless as she watched Mina walk out of the club. Sinfully tight dresses were a gift from god indeed.


	5. 5: Follow Me

Sorry for the wait, but here's the next chapter and we've got one left before the end of this story. Though don't worry, there's a sequel planned. Enjoy guys.

* * *

Beca tapped her phone against her lips and sighed loudly. A month. It had been a month since she'd last seen Mina. That weekend had been such a whirlwind and she had loved every single second of it, but as with all things, it had to end. The tour had resumed, and Mina was off with DSM and Muse with promises from the both of them to call and text and Skype as much as possible.

The reality of it was, they only got to talk for a few minutes a day between all the time zones and Beca's classes and Mina's performances. They were the best few minutes of Beca's day, and she hoped the best few of Mina's too. From the way her face lit up every time they were on Skype, Beca thought so.

Texting was easier, a quick text between sets, on the road, while Beca was in class, it didn't matter. There were at least a hundred texts between them a day, ranging from the mundane, what they were doing to rather in depth conversations about anything and everything. Beca felt herself falling harder and harder for a woman she'd only met twice. But she connected with her more than she had anyone else. And that had to mean something.

She sighed again and Amy looked over. "Oi, what the hell are you on about now? Do you need more butt confidence for that presentation tomorrow?"

Beca scooted more towards the wall by her bed. "Uh, no, I'm good. Really, really good. I'm just…I miss Mina, that's all. Which is stupid because I mean, how can I miss her after such a short time, but like…I do. It's whatever."

"If it makes you feel any better, I miss the things that Pieter can do to a woman's body."

No, no that really did not make her feel any better, but at least Amy was trying. At least they had gotten plenty of use out of the room Beca had left for them, that night. She shivered a little bit at that, but at least she had had the good sense to not try to go home. Instead, she'd spent the entire night with Mina, talking for a long time, cuddling, kissing. It definitely hadn't been where she thought the night was going but it had been sweet, almost innocent. It had been good for them, she thought.

"And Stacie misses Aren like nobody's business," Amy continued. "The girl has got it worse than a beached whale on a hot Australian day. She keeps going on about her promise and not breaking it, but being pretty desperate for sex and that Skype just isn't cutting it on that end."

Oh god, more information that she didn't need to know. She needed to stop this before Amy started waxing romantic about how manly Pieter was in ways that Beca never, ever wanted to know.

"Yeah, I think we're all a bit lost without them, but I mean. It's like, we're strong independant women. I think we can stand it." Beca wasn't convinced at all about that point, but at least she was trying to be optimistic.

"Whatever you say, short stuff, I'm with Stacie on this, Skype and a vibrator just don't cut it."

Beca was never so fucking glad that Mina chose that exact moment to text her back. "Skype?" was all it said.

She typed out a quick message, grabbing her computer and her charger at the same time. "Thank you god, yes, you are rescuing me from the most awkward conversation ever."

She looked over at Amy. "Mina can Skype now. I'm going to go talk to her, um, elsewhere. I'll see you in a bit."

Amy sat up straighter. "Oh good, if she has time, that means Pieter is probably free."

Maybe Beca wouldn't be back later. Sleeping on the couch was looking like a good option.

"What awkward conversation?" Mina texted back as Beca was walking down the stairs.

"You don't want to know. It was about Pieter and Skype and Aren and just…you don't wanna know. You've met Amy, just imagine all of those things and let your mind go to the gutter and…yeah."

"Ah, yes, I do not want to know."

"Give me just a second. I have to find a quiet place to set up shop." The little room they used as a study space should do. No one would be in there right now since it was later and it was one of the spa nights that Chloe religiously planned and Beca religiously avoided.

She walked into the study to find it empty and sighed. Thank god something was working out for her because Amy talking about sex with Pieter was not her version of the world working out in her favor. She quickly booted up her computer, grabbing her favorite desk and sitting down.

"Okay, computer's loading."

"Good, I am already on."

Beca tapped her fingers quietly as she finally reached the password screen and then the start screen. Every moment that she wasn't talking to Mina felt like a short fucking eternity. Skype launched itself quickly and she stabbed the call button a second later.

Mina answered in half a second. "Hello, little mouse."

Beca smiled wide. "Hi."

They just stared at each other for half a second before snapping out of it again.

"How was your concert today? Where are you, again, somewhere in Britain, right?"

"Yes, we just played in Edinburgh. Tomorrow we're going to Perth for two days and then on to Glasgow. But tonight's show was nice. The crowd was responsive and everything we ever want in a crowd. The only problem was that you weren't there."

Beca melted just a little bit. "Aw, you big giant cheese ball."

Mina laughed. "Perhaps I am, but cheese is good. At least now that we're back in Europe cheese is as it should be and not that processed plastic stuff."

"Yeah, sorry about that, I have no idea why we think that's cheese. But I still eat it, I totally still eat it." She shrugged.

"Oh mouse, how could you do that to yourself?"

"Poor taste and I grew up with the stuff. Things happen."

"Come to Germany with me and I will show you what real cheese is like." Mina looked a little wistful.

"I'll take you up on that offer when I'm not a broke college student. But I will totally take you up on that offer at some point."

"I am glad. It really is a beautiful place. I want to take you to all of my favorite places."

Beca could see it, them roaming the German countryside one day and then the cities the next. Mina would be pointing out things, telling her stories about growing up, and Beca would eat it up, wanting to know anything and everything about the other woman. It would be wonderful.

"That sounds awesome. Considering I got to do that with you in Atlanta, it's only fair, really."

Mina smiled. "Yes, true."

They sat in silence for a minute, lost in thought. "So, little mouse, how was your day? You said you had a presentation soon? How is that going?"

She looked away from the camera. "Oh-" She was cut off by an interruption on the other end of the line. Aren came scrambling in and crouched down beside Mina. The blonde in question looked positively murderous in that moment.

Aren stared at Mina with big blue doe eyes and a pleading smile.

"What do you want, Aren?" Mina looked at the girl, unamused.

Aren literally got down on her knees beside Mina. "My computer is dead and I was in the middle of Skyping Stacie and I forgot my charger at the hotel. Can I please use yours, or like, can Beca bring Stacie in there with her and we can all have a group chat?"

"You have to be joking, Aren. I haven't talked to Beca all day and now you want me to use my time with her to talk to your girlfriend?" Mina's eyes turned cold, Beca could see that even through the shitty skype cam quality. Damn, that was scary. Except, Aren didn't seem fazed at all.

"Well, yeah…" Aren's already massive eyes seemed to grow inhumanly larger with her pleading.

Mina huffed, like, actually huffed like a child. And it was adorable. "Aren, I'm not going to-"

Mina was cut off by an unnervingly high-pitched squeak from Beca's end of the line. Both German women turned their attention to the screen in time to see the Bella's hands fly to her mouth, her eyes doubling, if not tripling in size.

"Mouse? Are you alright?" Mina's tone was suddenly concerned and confused.

Her question was answered a second later when Aren screeched. She whipped around to see Matt Bellamy, Muse's frontman, behind the other woman, holding her sides and tickling relentlessly while Dom, the drummer, cackled loudly from the door.

Beca was the next to startle as Stacie spoke from behind her. "Well, that was an interesting sound to walk in on. Is someone killing my girlfriend?" She walked over and bent so she could see the screen better. "Oh, okay, not killing, tickling, right. Good to know."

Beca, for her part, was still sitting with her hands over her mouth because oh my fucking god Matt Bellamy and Dominic Howard were on Skype right in front of her. It was like every star in her life ever was aligning all at the same time. She'd never had enough money for the meet and greets, but this was so much better she couldn't stand it.

Mina turned back to the screen. "Are you okay, Beca? You look a little lost..."

Beca couldn't speak. She couldn't find words. Not only that, but she was afraid that anything she tried to say at this point would come out as a squeal and that was _so_ not how she planned her first interaction with her favorite band of all time. But then Aren stopped giggling like an idiot and suddenly Matt had his face wedged in the frame beside Mina's and Beca was not sure she could continue breathing.

"So you're Beca, eh? I'm Matt, lovely to finally put a face to the much talked about name!" Holy. Shit. Matt Bellamy knew her name. What was even happening? Was she dreaming? Had she fallen down the stairs again and cracked her head open?

"Ah, nrgh- yeah, uh…" Those weren't words, Beca! Get it together, you have an extensive vocabulary of human words so use some of them. Stacie snickered beside her.

"Mouse? You look a bit pale, are you sure you're alright?" Mina's brow furrowed slightly as she squinted at the screen.

It wasn't until Stacie smacked her on the shoulder that she snapped out of her stupor. "Wh- yeah, I'm fine, sorry! Yes, hi, I'm Beca, that's me!" She laughed nervously and sat up straighter. Mina cocked an eyebrow at Beca's behaviour but chose not to comment, thank god. Beca was nervous enough as it was without her goddess making her babble.

"We've heard loads about you, really. This one hardly shuts up about her little rat," Bellamy teased, bumping Mina's shoulder. The blonde in question then turned a shade of red that had probably not even been discovered yet and cast her eyes down to the table. "But it's nothing compared to the endless jabber we get from tickle-me-pink over there," he continued, jerking his head behind him to where Aren was standing. "She goes on about Stacie this and princess that. It's disgustingly adorable."

Stacie giggled beside Beca, ducking her head in an attempt to hide the blush creeping up her neck.

"Yeah, just be glad you never had to be around them when they were actually together. Talk about sickeningly cute." Beca scrunched her face in mock distaste.

"Oh, I can imagine." Matt smirked at the two DSM members in the room.

"Where'd the mouse name come from anyway? At least Princess makes sense." Dominic spoke, moving further into the room and leaning his arms against the back of Mina's chair to look at the screen.

"She is tiny like a mouse," Mina said, blushing even harder.

"Oh, so you're a furry then." Dominic laughed.

Beca spluttered for a good few seconds before practically shouting, "No!" Yeah, smooth Mitchell, smooth.

Matt and Dominic looked at each other and laughed harder. Stacie and Aren totally joined in and Beca punched Stacie in the arm.

"What?" Stacie asked. "All kinks are valid. Just accept yours."

"Oh, I like that one, Aren, keep her." Dominic threw his arm around Aren's shoulders.

"Hey, speaking of paws, keep yours off the girlfriend, drummer boy! I may be on another continent but I've got people everywhere." Stacie pointed a slender finger at the camera. Beca wanted to believe she was joking, she really did, but something in her tone was just all around disconcerting.

"Oi, Princess is possessive," Dom turned to Aren, taking his arm off her shoulders.

Matt chimed in. "What Princess do you know that isn't possessive? I don't think that Kate Middleton would exactly like you taking a pass at Harry, do you?"

"Nah, I'd rather take a pass at William anyway." The blonde man shrugged.

"What are you a teenage girl in the early two thousands?" Matt asked.

"No, I was a teenage boy in the late nineties, though."

"Thank you for that riveting lesson on how old you are." Matt shook his head.

Beca couldn't believe this was actually happening in front of her. Her favorite band members were actually having a casual conversation in front of her. A really weird casual conversation, too. She had probably died and gone to heaven or something. Actually she'd probably done that like five minutes ago and this was probably all a hallucination. She was okay with that really. As long as this seemed like reality wherever the hell she was.

Aren finally spoke up again. "Sorry, Prinzessin, my computer died in the middle of our conversation. How in the world did you know I'd try to bum Mina's computer off of her?"

"Didn't, just heard your voice and followed it here. I'd know it anywhere."

Aren smiled softly. "Aw."

There were gagging noises in the background and Dom and Matt were bent over double pretend barfing. Aren glared at them menacingly.

"Either one of your freaks actually manages to bag a girl like her and I'll make sure to tell them what the fuck sort of weird stuff you get up too."

Matt shrugged. "Hey, I already bagged an actress and a model. Obviously there's something about the weird shit that attracts them. And also there's a reason I don't bring them around you wankers often."

"Aw, where's the fun in that," Dom said.

"You are especially why I do not want to bring them around. 'If I was a fairytale character I'd be Yoda.' What the fuck man, that isn't even a fairytale character?"

"You have your fairytales, I have mine."

Mina turned to them. "Did you have a reason for bursting into my dressing room or did you just want to generally screw around."

"Generally screw around," both men said at the same time.

"And we totally had to see this Beca you were talking about," Matt continued. "And you always disappear right after the show's done and we put two and two together."

"Bonus points that we got to meet the Princess too," Dom chimed in and Aren swatted his arm.

"And you are still here, why?" Mina cocked an eyebrow.

"To bother you, why else?" Dom said, shrugging.

"Consider me bothered. You could always go meet Fat Amy. Pieter should be Skyping now as well."

Beca shook her head. "Uh, no, trust me they don't want to do that right now."

Everyone turned to face Beca again. She blushed again and looked away. "Um, just trust me. It wouldn't be a good sight to walk in on."

Everyone got the idea at the same time. "Oh, right, yeah, no. We'll avoid that. Thanks for the heads up, Beca."

"Yeah, now if only I could get a heads up. She's my roommate."

Matt and Dom cringed.

Mina looked at them. "Now in light of that information, could you perhaps bug some of the production crew instead? Or the other seventeen members of DSM."

"You're no fun." Matt stuck out his tongue.

"They do call me the Kommissar for a reason, ja?"

They both nodded. "Your rehersals are intense," Dominic said. "I thought he was a slave driver." He gestured at Matt. "Then I met you."

"And yet you still aren't leaving to allow me some personal…" she looked at Aren, "ish time with my girlfriend."

Beca froze. Mina had just said the word girlfriend...in reference to _her_. What? Had she missed them making it official? Oh my god, what was she supposed to say? Did she bring it up or let it sit? Was Mina being serious or was she just saying that out of convenience?

"Right, right, fine, we'll get out of your hair. Nice meeting you, Beca, hopefully we can talk to you more at some point when we aren't being threatened with a staking for staying." Matt smiled and Beca felt her heart skip like three beats. It couldn't be healthy but it pulled her out of her panicky state of mind even if for a moment.

"Uh, yeah, sure, definitely." Beca nodded probably what was a little too enthusiastically.

"Awesome, see you around." Matt waved goodbye, pulling a pouting Dominic out with him.

Beca looked at Mina and then up to Stacie and over to Aren. She wanted to bring up the girlfriend thing. She was going to think herself into the ground if she didn't. But in front of two other people wasn't exactly ideal. And it wasn't like she could just message and ask either because she _knew_ Stacie would read it over her shoulder. And she guessed Aren would too. Nosy fuckers.

She did have a phone though. She picked it up and typed out a quick message. "So, um, girlfriend?"

Beca waited an excruciating minute as her message crossed a literal ocean and then Mina finally picked up her phone, looking at Beca strangely. She read the message and then looked up.

"Yes, of course. Do you not feel the same?" Mina asked, looking worried for just a second.

"I totally do I just...I wondered if it was a slip of the tongue." A smile broke out over her face slowly, growing until it had to look a little demented but she was just so damn happy.

Aren looked back and forth between Mina and the screen. "Wait, feel the same about what? Are you guys texting? Not fair!" Mina ignored her whining.

"My tongue does a lot of things, but it never slips." Beca's heart jolted upon hearing that. No, wait, something jolted but it was definitely lower than her heart. Stacie's jaw dropped and she began snickering.

Beca let the smile turn into a sly smirk before quickly typing out another text. "I'm totally going to get to change my relationship status on Facebook."

Mina read the text and scoffed. "You may do that if you wish, but first I suppose you must actually add me, ja? If you would like to be a small teenager, I won't stop you."

Aren then tried to snatch Mina's phone from her grasp, resulting in the immediate swatting of her own appendages and a menacing glower from the aforementioned blonde.

"Oh come on, not just teenagers post their relationship status online and it's not like we've been dating for a day for all intents and purposes. We've basically been together for like a month now or was that whole dance at the club just between gal pals?"

"Gal pals," Mina said with just a little bit of disgust. "The media are idiots."

"No one is saying anything to the contrary. But why don't you add me on Facebook, then?"

Mina's focus changed and Beca heard the sounds of typing in the background. A second later a text from Facebook popped up asking her if she wanted to be friends with Mina Stauss. She hit accept immediately and opened up her browser, going into settings, and the next second her and Mina were Facebook official.

Stacie was apparently following Beca's Facebook activity because the moment she changed her relationship status, Stacie's phone lit up and she starting bouncing on the spot, squealing. Aren just looked genuinely confused.

"What's going on, why are you squealing?" Aren asked.

"They're finally Facebook official!" Stacie exclaimed. She hugged Beca for a second before pulling back.

Aren punched Mina in the arm. "Jesus, finally, dude."

Mina shot her an exasperated glance. "Oh hush, at least I did not ask her to be my girlfriend like we were in middle school."

"Uh, we were in the middle of the club and there was nothing middle school about the way we were dancing." Aren smirked.

"I thought it was sweet," Stacie said, with a smile.

Beca turned to her. "When did you turn into the sentimental type?"

Stacie just shrugged. "Pretty much always, but not everyone is worth it. She is."

"Aw!" Aren gripped her chest a little over dramatically. "You're so sweet."

Now Beca felt like she should be the one gagging. She looked at Mina who had basically the same look on her face.

"When exactly do we get to tell them to get a room?" Beca asked.

"I think we can do that now. They won't listen, but we can definitely do it now."

Aren hit Mina lightly, but Mina grabbed Aren's hand and looked at her with a raised eyebrow. Aren looked sheepish for a second before withdrawing her hand.

"Sorry."

"Remember to bring your charger next time and then this will not be an issue."

"Sorry, you know how hard it is to keep track of stuff when we're in a new hotel room every other night."

Mina looked unamused. "No, I do not. I am very organized if you haven't noticed."

"Not all of us can be a literal machine." Aren rolled her eyes.

"I know for a fact that you've seen me bleed. Or do you not remember that I take the expression blood, sweat and tears very, very seriously."

"Oh, shut up. Yeah, yeah I know you aren't a literal machine, but like. You know what I mean. I forget things. I don't see how you never do." Aren huffed and folded her arms.

"Because I have a system and reminders for everything. It works very well."

"Do you have one to wipe your ass too?"

Beca could sense that this was about to get seriously out of hand. "Right, okay, so like, we're on Skype to talk to our girlfriends, not to argue with the people we basically live with, right?"

Mina and Aren both blinked and looked back at the screen. Mina blushed just the tiniest bit.

"Sorry, tiny mouse. I got carried away." Mina looked away.

"Uh, yeah, sorry." Aren looked at Stacie. "Temper and all that."

"I think it's all good," Beca said. She looked back at Mina, wanting to continue their conversation about actually becoming truly official, but then another person popped their head into the room.

"Hey guys, we're loading up the buses now and going back to the hotel."

Mina and Aren sighed loudly but nodded. "Thank you, Cal. We will be there in a moment."

Mina looked back at Beca. "And I'm afraid on that note we both must go."

Aren leaned forward. "Love you, Prinzessin. I'll call you once we get back to the hotel to say goodnight, okay?"

Stacie smiled and reached out to touch the screen. "Love you too. Can't wait for your phone call." She blew the other woman a kiss and turned and walked from the room.

Beca sighed. "Guess I'll talk to you later then?" she asked. She wanted more time, but then again, that was really a common theme lately.

Mina smiled sadly. "Yes, I will text you when I get on the bus, ja?"

"Ja, definitely. I hate that you're overseas now and can't just call me. I love hearing your voice. These Skype calls aren't enough."

"I know, tiny mouse, but at least they are something."

"Yeah, I know…" she looked down at the keyboard. "I just sort of miss you, you know?"

"I do, I miss you too. It will only be a little while longer until the tour is over. Then we can talk whenever we want. Perhaps I will come and visit you."

Beca's heart lifted at that. "Yeah, I'd like that. A lot, actually."

Mina smiled. "Good, good. It's settled then." She sighed. "But I suppose I do really need to go now. Goodbye, tiny mouse."

"Bye." She waved awkwardly. The call disconnected a second later.

Beca leaned back in her chair and stared at the stared at the home screen of Skype. She chewed on the inside of her lip for a few seconds before standing and shutting the lid of her laptop. She didn't want to be here anymore. Really, she didn't want to be alone anymore. Amy would be up in their room and hopefully at least a bit decent by the time she got upstairs. That would be better company for her state of mind that spa night. At least Amy sort of knew what she was going through.

She grabbed her laptop and charger and climbed up the stairs loudly, hoping the extra warning would give Amy even more time to get straightened out. She opened the door slowly and looked in. Amy was sitting on her bed, fully clothed, thank god, and Beca walked in.

"Hey, how was your chat with Pieter?" Beca could have slapped herself for asking. She really, really didn't want to know.

"Eh, too short really for anything fun. We talked about how our day went and then that wanker showed up and said they had to go just as things were getting a bit more interesting." Amy shrugged.

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"How'd it go with tall, blonde, and terrifying?" Amy asked. Beca pretended not to be mildly offended by her roommate calling her girlfriend 'terrifying'.

"It was...it was good. Until Aren came in and interrupted and then Muse came and it got loud but that was totally awesome because oh my god Amy, Matt Bellamy knows my name, and then Stacie came in and-"

"Woah there, small one. No need to tell me everything in one breath. I hear oxygen isn't in short supply here in the states. Now if we were at home…"

Beca rolled her eyes. "Sue me for getting excited. It was nice to talk to them, actually they're weirder than I thought. Dom talked about rather hitting on Prince Henry than William, and then they were teasing me about being a furry. But I mean, my favorite band knows my name. And talked to me. It's just...dreams do come true." She sighed heavily. "But then one of their crew members came in and she had to go before we'd really even talked and it was just." She walked over to her bed and flopped down. "You know, I didn't think that long distance would be a walk in the park, but I didn't think it would suck this much, you feel me?"

"Oh yeah, I do. Not physically, though, that would be weird." Amy shrugged.

"Uh, yeah, thanks." She flopped back into her pillow. "I just wish there was some way that we could talk more to them, but I know they're busy with all their tour stuff and I'm glad they're successful and everything, but there are only so many Youtube videos out there and I've watched them all and bought all their songs and it helps to hear her voice there, but." She shrieked quietly, the sound muffled by the fabric around her.

"I get that. I may have a few, uh, videos of my own to tide me over."

Beca twitched at that. She didn't need to know that. She wished there was a delete button on brains.

A second later Stacie walked into the room, clutching her phone to her chest. She plopped down in Beca's desk chair. "This sucks," she said, shortly.

"Yup," Beca said again into her pillow.

"Like a stripper who needs to pay rent," Amy said, she shut her laptop and pushed it away.

Beca sat up enough to just look at Amy for a second before slumping back down again, this time with her face turned to the side. It was getting a little too hard to breathe in the pillow anyway.

"I wish there was something we could do about it." Beca started to pick at her comforter absently.

Amy blinked, looked over at her wallet for a second and then looked back at Beca and Stacie. She pulled her laptop to her and opened it again. Beca watched as she clicked around for a little bit, wondering what in the fresh hell she was doing, but not really caring enough to ask. Her phone vibrated and she checked it quickly. She smiled softly at the screen. Mina had texted her just a little heart, but it was enough to make her day that much better.

"Your full name is Rebecca Jae Mitchell, right?" Amy asked after a few minutes.

"Yeah, why?" Beca asked, distractedly, typing away on her phone.

"Oh, no reason, just need to steal your identity to commit the perfect crime."

Beca rolled her eyes and paid her no mind, going back to her conversation with Mina.

"And yours is Stacie Mara Conrad, right?" Amy asked Stacie, who was doing much the same thing that Beca was.

"Anastacia." Stacie popped her gum.

"Ah, cool, cool."

Another few minutes passed in silence before she got off the bed with a smile and walked into their closet. She came out a second later and threw Beca's suitcase right on top of her and put her own down on her bed. Beca sat up quickly, holding her stomach where the suitcase had hit.

"What the fuck?" She glared at Amy.

"Pack your bags, pitches, we're going to Scotland." Amy started opening her drawers and started stuffing things into her bag.

"Wait, we're doing what?" Beca just started at her some more.

Amy turned back to her. "Well why the hell did you think I needed your full names?"

"Um, I don't know I don't ask questions about things that you do." Beca just shrugged.

"Saner that way," Stacie said, looking up from her phone.

Beca climbed off her bed. "Are you really serious?"

"Duh, first class seats and everything serious. Gotta get our beauty sleep on the way there, obviously."

She blinked and then blinked again. "When the hell do we leave?"

"Tomorrow night. We'll fly into Glasgow and meet them there. We've got tickets to see the show and to the meet and greet too." Amy started to hum obnoxiously as she kept packing.

Stacie was up and out of Beca's chair in a second. "I call aisle seat. I'm going to go pack right now!" She practically ran from the room with a smile plastered on her face.

"Are you fucking kidding me? We do have class and stuff, Amy." But she started packing too because Mina. She could go and see Mina.

"I mean, we leave after class tomorrow and then most of the trip is over the weekend. What do you care as long as you get to snog the scary German lady a lot?"

Well, there was her internship, but she would be there tomorrow and only miss Friday, so that would be okay. Sick days existed for a reason.

"Alright then, let's go to Scotland."


	6. 6: Supermassive Black Hole

Literally months later and we've finished it. Oops, blame me because I'm that fuck truck who hasn't updated like anything in forever, but I swear this is the first step in getting back on track. And now without further ado, an 11k chapter to finish this all off, enjoy.

* * *

Beca was jittery. So fucking jittery. And she had been the entire flight over. Like, literally shaking enough that she was surprised she hadn't shaken the plane out of the sky, and wouldn't that have been a stupid way to go? So moral of the story, she did not sleep a wink on the plane and right now was only running on adrenaline and caffeine, which was not making matters any better in the jittery department.

But they were in Glasgow. And everyone sounded so weird and she wasn't sure she understood anything that anyone was saying even though she was pretty sure they were all speaking English, even if it was a weird dialect of English. Then again, since they were in Scotland they could actually be speaking Gaelic and Beca wasn't sure she would know the difference. Right now, sitting in a coffee shop down the block from their hotel, killing time before they could check in, Beca wasn't sure she understood much of anything except for the fact that in less than twelve hours she was going to see Mina again.

"Oi! You little leprechaun, get out of my way, can't you see a lady is trying to get through?" Fat Amy practically yelled at one guy who didn't get out of her way immediately. Beca felt bad for him for getting hit by the tornado that was Amy, but then she heard the words fucking bitch come out of his mouth so she was a bit less sympathetic.

"Bloody rat bastard," Amy called back to him, shoving past him and setting down the plates full of breakfast scones and muffins she'd gotten for them. Stacie grabbed one and started eating as if they weren't in a foreign country and everything was perfectly normal. Beca reached out and took something at random, but really didn't eat anything. She tore apart what looked to be a blueberry muffin into tiny chunks.

"Right, so that looker behind the counter gave me directions to get to the stadium where our main squeezes will be playing. Or more like your main squeezes and my side man, but whatever, there's no need to so specific." She picked up a scone and practically ate it in one bite. "I will still eat that German chump for lunch."

Beca didn't even want to think about the innuendo there and knowing Amy it was totally on purpose too.

"You two are going to be the ones eaten though." Amy winked at them in that exaggerated way that she had.

Stacie just snorted and nodded. "If all goes well, that's the goal here, isn't it. It's not like Skype sex really does it."

"You guys have already had this conversation and it's totally why we're here, so can we not do this again," Beca said, heading off this awkward discussion at the pass. Still, she was already beet red from blushing. She did not need this right now. Right now she needed to fucking chill and probably a nap, but it was still like four hours until they could check in. Ugh, red eye flights and the whole arriving in the morning thing was annoying.

"What, you're just jealous that you didn't think of doing it with your German." Amy picked up a muffin and actually ate at a reasonable pace this time.

Beca spluttered and shoved the plate of muffin bits forward. "I am not!"

Stacie and Amy looked at each other, their expressions the perfect picture of 'uh huh, sure,' which only pissed off Beca more.

"What! I'm not. I don't want our first time doing anything like that to be over the internet, ok?"

"You should have just screwed her a few months back, god knows the sex was great." Stacie smirked like the cat that caught the canary.

"Second that." Amy high fived Stacie.

"Ugh, guys. I'm glad that you both super like sex and super like to get it on on the first date, but that's not my style, remember? It took me most of a year just to fucking like you guys, things go a little slower for me. Like, this whole thing with Mina is a little fast honestly. It's sort of freaking me out. But mostly in a good way except for the fact that I haven't slept in twenty-four hours and am literally shaking right now, but whatever."

Her friends immediately sobered up. "Okay," Stacie said, nodding. "You make a good point, not everyone is the same in relationships."

"Yeah, but you and Mina are great together, so like, go for it. She's sexy - maybe not quite on my level, but close. And every time I walk in on your conversations on Skype and every time I read your text messages after you've fallen asleep, she's really sweet and you guys have so much in common. Not to mention you listen to her music in the shower. If that doesn't tell you what's up, I don't think anything will," Amy said.

Beca blinked at her friend for a second. She fucking thought her phone sometimes moved from where she left it while she was sleeping. The first chance she got she was changing her passcode on her phone, preferably when Amy was in like the next state or something. The twenty dollar thing was bad enough. She sighed, sometimes she didn't know why she loved these nerds.

Except it probably had something to do with the fact that their words had actually made her feel better. Yeah, she was still shaking but jet lag and caffeine were probably mostly to blame at the current moment. Maybe if she ate something it would stop or at least diminish some. She pulled the shredded up muffin back to her and started eating the little bits slowly.

It was weird to just sit there drinking coffee and eating a muffin like everything was normal. She had thought that being abroad would be super duper different, and obviously it was different, but not to the degree that she had imagined. Man, being stuck in the States her whole life had really fucked with her perceptions of things. It didn't escape her notice that she'd finally managed to get out, if only for a long weekend, because of Mina. She really had gone out of her comfort zone for the other woman, she'd pushed herself more than she had since she'd joined the Bellas. And really, as much as she'd sort of hated that in the beginning, it had turned out really well for her. Maybe, well, more than maybe this would turn out well too.

She ate enough of the muffin that she stopped shaking, or maybe it was because she really had chilled the fuck out, or a combination, it didn't matter as long as she wouldn't look like a complete idiot later. Beca pushed her mostly empty plate forward and looked at the rest of her now lukewarm coffee and decided that that wasn't a good idea. Now that she was over the jitters she really shouldn't take the chance. Beca looked up at her friends who were mostly finished as well.

"Ok, so any plans for today since we still have like a million hours before we can check into our hotel?" She asked. Beca looked at Amy even though she knew that she would probably regret it later. She was, after all, the one who booked the trip, she probably had some sort of plan. A plan that was going to kill her, but a plan.

Amy smirked and whipped out a map. "Oh, I have plans." She shot up from her seat. "Come on, pitches. Last one to the hotel to drop of their luggage has to tell these buggers that tea is disgusting and get fed to the dogs." She grabbed her bag and started to power walk, because of course Fat Amy never ran anywhere.

Beca and Stacie just looked at each other before getting up and following Amy at a reasonable pace.

* * *

At four they were finally allowed to check into their hotel and Beca was totally already planning the two hour nap she was going to take as soon as she saw a bed. The nervous energy she'd felt earlier had completely gone somewhere around the time that Amy had dragged them through The Necropolis, shouting about the view. Which Beca had thought was a little disrespectful to the dead people, but since they were dead and Amy had a tendency to stuff Beca under her arm, dangerously close to her armpit when they were arguing, Beca hadn't said anything.

Stacie leaned against Beca, still more than a little tipsy from the tour and subsequent tasting they'd gone on at Glengoyne Distillery. She hoped Stacie would be a hell of a lot more sober by the time the concert rolled around, but then again they still had four hours and they were like a five minute walk away so they had time to sober Stacie up.

"Still say we should have gone to the West End and had a look around," Amy said, digging out the key card the desk clerk had given her as they walked down the hall.

"Amy, you dragged us to a cemetery, a distillery, a park, and a cathedral in like six hours. I am about to fall down and if I fell down Stacie would fall down because you know how she is with good whiskey."

"It's so nice, Beca," Stacie slurred, but her words were slowly getting more distinct which was a great sign. Still though, Beca looked at Amy like 'do you see?'

"Pfft, you Americans and your low alcohol tolerance, ridiculous." Amy stopped outside their room and let them in. "Alright we now have four hours to get ready to see our various fuckbuddies or whatever you feel like calling them. I call first shower!"

Beca just walked in behind Amy without saying a thing. She didn't care. Nap. She so badly wanted a nap.

"Stace, you should probably drink some water and take some sort of pain meds to avert your probable hangover." She parked her suitcase by the bed farthest from the window and fell down on the soft surface. Jesus, it felt like heaven.

"Already ahead of you, Becky-Becs." Stacie giggled and flopped down on the other side of the bed almost spilling the water bottle she'd pulled from the minibar. She dragged her carry on up onto the bed and dug around until she found a small bottle of Motrin and popped three into her mouth with a quick swig of water.

Beca let Stacie get away with the horrible nickname because she was drunk and no other reason. Honestly, Becky-Becs, god she hated the name Becky and she hated people who called her that, except for Stacie right now because she had an excuse. But that didn't mean she didn't glare a little bit before shutting her eyes.

"You can take a shower after Amy. It should help sober you up. I'm going to take a nap for a little while or else I'm going to die tonight and not in a good way."

"But you have to pick something out to wear tonight," Stacie said, already rooting around in her luggage again.

"We have four hours, Stace, I think I can handle picking out an outfit in that time period." She already ninety percent knew what she was going to wear. Her wardrobe was full of skin tight skinny jeans that made her ass look fabulous so that had been a no brainer, and after she showered she was going to change into the new matching set of panties and a push up bra that did fucking wonderful things to her cleavage that she had bought a couple weeks back when she might have been planning her next meeting with Mina, paired with her normal converse because concert floors could get interesting and she wasn't dumb enough to put herself through wearing heels for such a long time. The only thing she wasn't super certain of was what top she'd wear, but really, she'd be in better shape to pick something out when her brain wasn't moving at literally a snail's pace.

She started to drift off with Stacie's rustling in the background. Beca felt Stacie get up, but just used that as an excuse to spread out more to get even more comfortable. And she was almost, almost asleep when Stacie gasped loudly.

"Oh my god!" she exclaimed in that overly loud voice that drunk people seemed to universally adopt.

"Stacie," Beca mumbled into her pillow, "I've made some allowances for the fact that you're drunk, but I will literally kill you soon if I don't get some sleep."

"But Beca, you have to see this. Mina's like right outside the window. And Muse too."

Beca pried her eyes open. "What do you mean? We're on the fifteenth floor, Stacie."

"Just come here!"

Ugh, that sealed it when Stacie sobered up she was killing her. Beca wanted to make sure the other woman knew exactly what was happening to her and why when she murdered her. She pushed herself out of bed and walked over to the window where Stacie was standing and looked out.

"Oh holy shit." Outside the window was a huge billboard advertising the concert, which wouldn't really be anything remarkable, except instead of just a picture of Muse's logo or the three band members, it was Muse and DSM all together, looking intimidating in black and mesh and Beca was literally dead even with Mina's eyes and she felt caught. Holy fuck, she hadn't seen this advertisement before. The tour marketing department must have come up with something new recently, or her google searches just hadn't turned up this piece of international marketing.

Her eyes skimmed over Mina. It was a different outfit than the one she wore for the concert. This one was just. Wow. The shirt was all mesh except for just the thinnest band over Mina's chest and you could clearly see her abs through the holes in the shirt and Jesus Beca really wanted to lick those well defined lines. She shook herself. That was probably the jet lag talking. Well, maybe not. The pants were black and ripped enough that there wasn't really much left to cover anything at all. And Mina had nice legs. She had nice everything, what was she even thinking. Finishing off the outfit were combat boots that looked like they could successfully curb stomp someone with ease. It was intimidating as hell when paired with the look that Mina was giving the camera, and her posture. And goddamn if it didn't turn Beca on.

Suddenly the last thing she needed was a nap and the first thing she needed was a cold shower. She gulped hard. God, she was really such a goner.

"Look at her," Stacie sighed.

Beca knew a sigh like that wasn't about Mina. She looked for Aren and saw her on Mina's left side, a similar outfit on her, arms crossed over her chest, looking like she could kill a man. She did look good, definitely, but Beca was still biased towards Mina for obvious reasons.

"I don't even want to know what Amy is going to say when she sees Pieter on that poster." Beca took a step back from the window. If she didn't walk away now she was just going to keep staring out the window like some sort of love sick puppy.

"What about me?" Amy called through the closed bathroom door.

Beca jumped. The fact that Amy could have hearing like a bat when she wanted to was always a pain in the ass. Amy popped out a second later clad in a towel and Stacie just pointed out the window. Beca sighed heavily, went over to her bag and tried to tune out the other two because she swore to god if she heard one more comment about how big Pieter's dick was she was going to scream and she really didn't want the cops to be called on them right now. She had people to see.

So instead she just sorted through the tops she'd packed and debated on the merits of each of them for a few minutes while humming loudly. It worked for the most part. She picked up the red halter top she'd packed. Definitely too cold for that and she'd stand out like a sore thumb and why had she even packed this if she didn't really like it? Oh right, made her boobs look awesome, but still, she threw it aside. The flannel she'd packed for the airplane ride back was out. That left her super low cut dark blue blouse or and an off the shoulder black shirt that she'd bought with Chloe on one of her many attempts to get Beca into something a little more fashionable. Which she was totally fashionable, just not in Chloe's way damn it.

She'd put aside the black top without really thinking about it a second later. Beca nodded though at her unconscious choice. Low cut with the bra she was going to be wearing and the direction this night might go was totally the way to go. She quickly set out everything else she needed to get ready and yawned again. And now that that was done she really could nap now. She looked over at her friends and prayed they'd be somewhat quiet before swan diving onto the bed and falling asleep a few minutes later.

* * *

Beca stood outside the stadium, heart beating in her chest. This was it. They were finally going to see Mina and all of DSM again. And as an added bonus, she was actually going to see the entire concert considering she didn't need to run out and see Mina this time. They had backstage passes where she could spend as much time with Mina as she wanted without a huge crowd of people trying to buy merch. She couldn't recall ever being this excited for anything.

By the time the trio made it through the ticket line, Beca thought her poor organ was about to crack a rib, it was pounding so hard. The closer they got to their seats, the more apparent it became that these were no ordinary run-of-the-mill tickets. They weren't even normal VIP seats, which became increasingly obvious as they passed not one, not two, but three sections of VIP seating.

Stuck in a concert induced haze, the tiny Bella didn't really pick up on just how close they were until Fat Amy said something along the lines of "oh yeah, Pieter's German sausage is going to look great from here". It was around that time that Beca took a look at her surroundings. Her jaw dropped. They didn't have good seats. They didn't even have great seats. Hell, who even needed seats when you were literally standing _in front of the front row_ of seats.

"Amy, how the hell did you even-" Beca started to question her friend but was cut short by the dimming lights of the arena followed closely by the eruption of screams and cheers. Probably best that she didn't know the answer to her initial question anyway.

She zoned out as the announcer once again read his scripted spiel of sponsors. All she could see was DSM getting into place on the darkened stage in front of them and Jesus she was close enough to lick Mina's abs. Well she would be if she was taller. It wasn't hard to pick her out of the crowd of black and mesh. No one walked quite like her,striding confidently, shoulders back, like she was about to kill a man.

The announcer finally shut up and the lights came up and DSM, as one, snapped to life. Beca near fainted as the first notes of Elastic Heart rang through the arena in Mina's angelic voice. Oh gods, if the entire concert was going to do this to her, she may as well sit her ass down now before she fell down.

She found herself mouthing along with the words to the songs, following Mina's every move with her eyes and hoping that Mina would look at her. Honestly, it wasn't much different than the first concert she'd gone to, except now she knew what it was like to kiss Mina, and how she felt under her fingers and that made this concert better, more special and she wanted it go on forever at the same time that she wanted it to end so she could see Mina again after so long.

Despite her hopes, Mina didn't look down at her during the first song, not even in the pause between songs. She was ever the consummate professional. Beca knew that, but after flying three thousand miles she wished Mina would glance down just once. She thought about actually singing along, actually raising her voice up loud, but that wouldn't attract Mina's attention. She'd been on too many stages to think that would work. The noise of the crowd and speakers would drown her out. She had waited a month, surely she could make herself wait just a little longer. And so she sat back and kept watching.

She wasn't sure when exactly things got dodgy on stage, but she definitely knew why. About two thirds of the way through the second number, DSM got clumsy. As Aren was making a loop around the group at large, she spotted Stacie. The dark haired girl squinted for a second at her girlfriend before losing her footing and colliding into the back of a short blonde DSM girl. She corrected herself immediately, of course, as a machine would, but continued on with a very deer-in-the-headlights expression for the next few steps until she assured herself she was back on track.

It happened so fast and was such a minor slip up that Beca was sure no one else noticed, there were just too many members of DSM to watch and almost everyone was watching Mina and Pieter, but she did. And she knew Stacie did. One glance at Mina told her that the fearless leader had, unsurprisingly, noticed as well. Of course she had. Because she's Mina. And Mina fed off the failure of others. And probably had eyes in the back of her head. Beca wouldn't really be surprised if she did.

The song ended and Aren looked visibly relieved. Her eyes kept drifting down to look at Stacie, then quickly pulling back up, trying to keep her focus for the performance so she didn't fuck up again and risk the terror that was Mina beyond pissed off, but it was like she couldn't quite help it. Beca thought it was sickeningly cute, and would help Aren by distracting Mina if she could, but that wasn't going to happen and everyone involved knew it. Stacie just waved and grinned every time Aren looked at her, shock clear in her eyes. They'd get to explain later why they were there but for now it was amusing to watch Aren because it was obvious she thought she might be dreaming.

The third song started and on one of the passes where DSM all came together to make a formation Aren passed close enough to Pieter to actually see the looks that Aren was giving them. He looked out of the corner of his eyes, spotted Amy and wiggled his eyebrows. To which of course Amy then mimed sucking a dick while shouting.

"Fuck yeah! That's my side hoe right there!" Amy continued with the lewd gestures for the rest of the set. Beca just tried not to look in their direction because really? In front of all these people? She wasn't surprised, but that didn't mean she couldn't be at least a disgusted with the whole situation.

The rest of the show went normally except for the staring and gestures and Beca was still blown away by just how fucking talented DSM was. Someday soon they'd have their own tour, but she wasn't sure if that was the proud girlfriend in her or the aspiring music producer speaking. Regardless they made a hell of a good show and it wasn't long before the German's were clearing the stage and the first shouted words of 'Dead Inside' were blasting through the speakers.

Beca's heart rate spiked. She hadn't gotten to see the whole concert the first time around. She was actually going to get to do that this time. And this was her favorite band like basically ever. And they actually knew her name now? What could make this concert better?

Those few numbers that she had missed the first time around really rounded out the performance. Seeing the show in it's entirety really was better than only seeing bits and pieces. She found herself jumping up and down to the music, singing along, screaming loud enough that her vocal chords hurt. And maybe it had to do with the fact that she wasn't worried about meeting Mina and impressing her and a thousand other things, or maybe it had to do with the fact that Muse was a fucking great band, maybe it was a mixture of both, but who really cared when she was across the fucking Atlantic in Glasgow seeing her favorite band in concert about to see her girlfriend and probably fuck the hell out of her. It probably was the best night of her life and a story she'd tell her kids and grandkids years from now.

The closing notes of Uprising echoed in Beca's ears. This was a transcendent moment if she had ever experienced one.

"Alright you wankers!"

Moment gone.

Matt Bellamy's voice rang obnoxiously over the stadium. "This last song is going out to all the cats, mice, and princesses in the building. May you _all_ get lucky tonight." He shot a solitary wink at Beca as the crowd erupted. How the hell had he even known she was there? Had Aren told him in the three seconds between DSM going off stage and Muse on? The little Bella felt her cheeks catch fire. Matt jumped over to his piano and propped one foot up on the bench before hammering out the first chords of 'I Belong To You'. This, of course, caused Beca to turn a shade of red that she wasn't even sure existed in the chromatic scale. She looked pitifully at Stacie whose smile was consuming her entire face. Of course she wouldn't be embarrassed about the leader of an internationally famous band telling them to get lucky. Beca only wished she could say the same. God if only she had met Mina at a concert for a band that wasn't basically her favorite ever.

Beca looked around to see if she could see just how Amy was reacting, though she didn't know why. If Stacie wasn't embarrassed Amy wouldn't be. Amy after all was the one who regularly yelled about her latest it seemed somewhere between intermission and the end of the show, Amy went missing. Beca thought for a split second that maybe she should get Stacie and go look for her, but then again if they didn't know where Amy was they had plausible deniability to anything Amy got up to. Especially since wherever she vanished to was probably either illegal or unsanitary - or both. Probably both. It was good thing that they'd already taken their backstage passes from her and could continue on without her when the show ended.

"I Belong to You" played on and Beca's blush faded. No one in the audience knew that the what Matt had said had been about her and Stacie and Amy getting laid tonight. Which was comforting. At least a little bit because still her favorite band knew she was going to get fucked tonight and it was going to take a little while to live that down. Ugh, Mina was worth all of this, but if only it hadn't actually happened then it would be perfect.

"Alright guys, that's it for us tonight. I love you guys. You've been a great crowd. Buy some merch on your way out." He winked. "And have a great night!"

The lights went dark on the stage and everyone around them clapped for a few long minutes before anyone really went anywhere. This was it. They could go backstage now and actually see their respective love interests. And Muse. Though right now for once in her life that was actually secondary. Stacie turned towards her and smiled, white teeth bright in the dim light left in the stadium now that the stage lights were off.

"Come on Becs!" She grabbed Beca's hand and pulled her towards where they needed to go.

Beca's heart pounded as she and Stacie rounded the corner into the hallway that would lead them to the backstage entrance. The girls flashed their lanyards at the beefy man at the gate and he stepped aside for them to continue.

"So...any idea where we are supposed to go from he-" Stacie began, but was cut off by a familiar, booming voice from their right.

"Oy! Dom, look, it's the rat and the princess! Lucky, lucky, look what we've caught," Matt sang as he and the rest of the group approached. The frontman practically tackled the girls in a hug around their necks - a particularly unbalanced hug, taking the height difference into account.

Beca couldn't quite believe what the hell was happening, but her arms came up and hugged the man reflexively. Had she died and gone to heaven without noticing? But then her brain caught up with her and she remembered the whole comment about getting lucky that Matt had made before ending the show and her face was crimson red once more in half a second.

"Hi guys," Stacie said once she was let go from the hug fest, picking up the conversational slack that Beca was leaving.

Dom flicked their backstage passes, hanging around their necks. "All official like, I see. You know you could have just told the bouncers that you were the main squeeze of the DSM leaders and they would have let you back. They already know about you."

"Mostly because we won't stop razzing them about you, loudly enough that I think the entire production crew knows about you." Matt grinned large enough that it totally crossed the line into shit eating.

"Better safe than sorry, right?" Beca asked, her mouth finally working. She could do this. She could actually be a human being and not actually stick her foot in her mouth.

"Matt, Dominic, why am I not surprised that you found them before we did?" Mina voice rang out behind them.

Beca peeked around Matt and saw Mina up close for the first time in a month and her mouth started to water. She was already in casual gear, a t-shirt and tight white jeans that made Beca want to lose her mind right then and there.

"Because, love, we're, as you would say, completely up to no good."

Mina rolled her eyes and stepped around her tourmate to face Beca. "Little mouse, I can be quite honest when I say I was not expecting you flew clear to Glasgow just to see me?"

"Stacie!" Aren shouted, tackling Stacie almost to the ground in Beca's peripheral vision, and that was really the last thing that registered about her friend because who could really register anything but the German goddess in front of her.

"Um, yeah, I guess I did. I mean, it was actually Amy's idea and Amy's black card that paid for it, but yeah, we all wanted to see you guys."

"Oh, they didn't just come to see you, they came to come as well." Dom and Matt high fived.

Mina turned a glare on them. "Have you caused enough mischief yet to satisfy yourselves?"

"Nah, give us a few more minutes. Besides, we've got to make sure that Beca here knows what she's getting into. We've got to protect her, you see."

Mina's eyes drug up and down Beca's body. "And do you know what you're getting into, Beca?" She drug out Beca's name, making it sound like a curse and yet like salvation.

"I, um, yeah, yeah I do." She nodded almost frantically but at the last second she pulled it back, trying to keep her cool.

"With a face like that I think the girl totally knows what she's getting into. Just make sure you don't have hotel management called on you again, Mina. God knows the whole Muse thing only gets us so far with grumpy managers."

"But we all know that money shuts them up if need be, Bellamy, so hush."

"Dunno, mate, they get awful cranky when you break shit and don't really shut up even when you offer to pay."

Mina cocked an eyebrow. "And just how much stuff did you break?"

"Well, it might have been both beds and a table, but it was really an accident and only a minor amount of alcohol was involved. It wasn't as big a deal as they were making it out to be, I swear." He shrugged.

"Yes, well, in comparison a noise complaint will be very easy to deal with, don't you think?"

Dom snickered. "Awful confident in your abilities to make the mouse squeak, aren't we?"

A slow grin spread across Mina's face that made Beca throb all over. Holy shit, the woman was sex personified. It was totally not fair.

"Of course I'm confident, I'm a singer, I'm well aware of how to use my mouth. But also I'm a singer. And that means, boys, that I have a very good set of lungs. And with a woman who looks like that," she gestured to Beca, "it won't be a stretch to say that they will be used to their fullest capacity."

Dom and Matt looked at each other for a second before screaming "Aaay," and slapping Mina on the back.

Beca for her part was dying all over again for multiple reasons. The fact that her favorite band was talking about her being loud enough to get management called on them. The fact that Mina was confident that she could make the other woman scream that loud. The fact that all the images of just exactly what she wanted to do to Mina to make her scream that loud. Everything was combining together to make one awkward blushing mess out of her.

But with one look at Mina, smirk still intact as Matt and Dom continued to razz her, she knew that she wouldn't change any of this for the world. A smile crept onto her face and morphed into a shit eating grin. Well, if she was in this situation with her idols teasing her and her girlfriend about their sex life, she might as well give them something to talk about.

She walked forward and melded herself into Mina's side, still grinning up at the other woman. She could see Mina was surprised, but only her eyes gave the other woman away, her face was as composed as ever. Beca stood up on her tip toes and kissed Mina's cheek which made the boys howl even louder.

"So why don't you give me the backstage tour?"she whispered in Mina's ear, though she was sure that Matt was standing close enough to hear her if he wanted to, and Beca was sure he did. It seemed that an opportunity to rag on Mina later wouldn't pass him by.

"What a wonderful idea, little mouse." Mina's arm snuck around Beca's waist, squeezing her to the other woman for a moment before drawing Beca backwards, away from the group.

"I hate to interupt, well no, that is a lie, but gentlemen, I believe Beca and I have elsewhere to be."

"So that's what the kids are calling it these days," Matt shouted after them, but they were already off walking through the maze of backstage.

Beca looked back, trying to find Stacie in all the mess but didn't see her.

"Your friend and Aren left almost as soon as they saw each other," Mina said, answering Beca's unasked question without even glancing Beca's way, which was a little freaky, but handy at least.

"Oh, okay."

"Knowing Aren, the dressing room is getting a rather...strenuous workout before they will manage to stuff it in their pants long enough to make it back to the hotel." She shook her head, fondly exasperated. "And Pieter disappeared before Muse's set was done, so god knows where he and Fat Amy are." Her hand came to rest on Beca's ass possessively as they kept walking. "So it's just you and I, mouse, which tonight is how I prefer it." She turned a look on Beca so hungry that Beca shivered hard.

"Me too," Beca breathed out. "So why don't we go back to your hotel room?"

Mina surged forward, pulling them to a stop in the middle of the hall and kissed Beca hard and fast and dizzying. "I thought you'd never ask. Come along, Beca."

She pulled Beca by their joined hands, almost too fast for Beca to keep up, but Beca didn't mind. She was going to enjoy this.

* * *

It wasn't lost on Beca, the irony that they had been staying in the same hotel this entire time. Not that Beca really believed that Mina would have been there at all when she was there earlier, but still. She wondered if Amy had known when she'd booked their room. Something told her yes, but right now she really didn't care.

Right now what she cared about was the fact that Mina was walking just slightly in front of her down the hall towards the room that she wasn't sharing with two other people and that Mina's ass looked fucking awesome in leather pants. Beca was sure Mina had kept them on just for her. And she was really, really looking forward to taking them off.

Mina looked over her shoulder with that ridiculously sexy smirk like she knew what Beca was thinking about. Then again, it wasn't really hard to guess since in the modern vernacular 'do you want to come back to my room with me?' really only had one interpretation. So she just cocked an eyebrow back at Mina asking without words just what the other woman was going to do about it. Mina's eyes darkened and her steps sped up just a bit. Any faster and Beca was going to have to break into a jog. But at least there was the added benefit of getting to the room faster.

Mina finally stopped outside a door at the end of the hall and pulled out a keycard. She slipped it easily into the lock and a second later she was stepping into the room, dragging Beca along with her. She didn't allow the door to close on its own but had Beca pinned up against it a second later. The kiss was hard and demanding and all Beca wanted at that moment. Her arms were up and around Mina's neck without thought, drawing them together harder.

The adrenaline from the concert combined with all the hormones that being with Mina released and she almost felt dizzy, but in the very, very good way. She felt her knees weakening already and god, this was going to be amazing, wasn't it? She opened her mouth and Mina used the opportunity fully, deepening the kiss, caressing Beca's tongue with her own, and Beca couldn't help but moan. Her hands slipped up into Mina's hair and grabbed on tight, trying to ground her in the moment, but she was gone when the action caused Mina to groan into her mouth.

Mina's hands wandered down and around and grabbed Beca's ass. They were both longing to be even closer together, but that probably wasn't physically possible right at that second. Mina pulled up and Beca responded, hopping up and wrapping her legs around Mina's waist as Mina pressed her harder into the door.

"Fuck," she whispered as her center firmly pressed into Mina's rock hard abs. Her hips started to move without her permission, trying to seek out more friction.

"Isn't that the goal here, little mouse?" she teased, breathless, before attacking Beca's neck with a fervor that Beca hadn't been sure existed before that moment.

Beca hissed in a breath, gathering her thoughts for a few long moments before she was able to speak. Mina's lips, teeth, and tongue just felt so mind numbingly good against the sensitive skin of her neck that it was so very hard to think. "Smart ass, you damn well-ah, know that I meant that as an exclamation not a literal statement."

Mina laughed against Beca's skin, but didn't pull back to defend herself. She just kept right on doing what she had been as Beca continued to slowly lose her mind. Her hips were still moving, faster now as her body warmed up, getting hotter and hotter under Mina's touch. One of her hands untangled from Mina's hair and slipped between them to rest on one of Mina's boobs, squeezing lightly. Mina's grip on her faltered for just a second in response and Beca felt more powerful than she had in a long time.

"Bed," Beca managed to choke out.

"Wonderful idea." Mina said, getting a firmer grip on Beca before stepping back from the door and carrying Beca to the bed. The other woman set Beca down gently, before shoving her back and crawling on top of her. Mina looked down at Beca, hunger all over her face.

"Is this where you make a corny joke about you being a cat and catching the mouse?" Beca snarked, but it was a bit too breathy to really have any punch.

Mina chuckled. "Oh, Beca, jokes are the last thing on my mind right now." She reached out and caressed Beca's face. "Right now I'm thinking more about where to start ravishing you, but there are so many different ideas I can't decide." Her hand trailed down to Beca's lips. "Because your mouth is so very sinful." Her fingers coasted down further onto Beca's neck. "But your skin tastes so good and leaving my mark on you has a great amount of appeal as well." Farther down still and Mina was cupping Beca's breast, thumb finding her nipple easily. "And then there are other parts of you that I haven't even begun to explore yet and I can't have that, now can I?"

Beca started to squirm just a bit under Mina. That little speech had turned her on more than she cared to admit.

"No, you can't have that." Beca swallowed hard as Mina sat up enough to start slowly slipping the buttons of Beca's blouse out of their little holes, revealing her skin inch by torturous inch. Mina's touch was light, teasing, almost tickling over the newly revealed skin. It was too much and really, definitely not enough. Beca was never more grateful when the end of the shirt came and Mina finally parted it completely. She sat up just enough that Beca could slip out of the shirt and it went flying to places unknown in the room.

Mina laughed as they settled back into place once more. Her hands were on Beca's breasts, massaging them gently. "Someone was planning this, weren't they?"

Beca thought about denying it, but what was the point right now, pinned under the most gorgeous women she'd ever seen. "Maybe."

"No one wears a bra like this otherwise. It is rather exquisite." She bent down to lick along the lacy edge.

Beca pulled in a sharp breath. Holy fucking shit. "M-maybe I just wanted to look pretty for me."

"I don't think so." The words vibrated against her skin, leaving goosebumps in their wake.

"Neither do I," Beca finally admitted and she could actually feel Mina's smirk against her.

"That wasn't very hard to admit, now was it, little mouse?" She dropped a few kisses on Beca's sternum. "But as pretty as this is, I think that it will have to go now. Too much of you is covered." Mina's hands slipped behind Beca's back and had her bra unsnapped in a second, pulling it off and flinging it the way of her shirt. Idly Beca hoped she'd be able to find that later because it had been expensive and she actually liked it, but right now that was the least of her concerns.

"Beautiful," it was a revenant sigh that warmed Beca in a different, deeper way that just the feeling of lust. Mina looked down at her with such awe and care that Beca knew that come morning she wouldn't regret this. She wouldn't regret this in a thousand worlds and lives.

She leaned up and kissed Mina, gentle yet desperate. She needed the other woman. Her hands found the hem of Mina's shirt and tugged it up and up until it was just sitting, hanging around Mina's neck because she couldn't bring herself to end the kiss just yet. It came to a natural end and the two of them just sat there for a second, foreheads pressed together before Mina pulled back and finished taking off her shirt and then her bra for good measure.

Beca had thought she was prepared for the sight of Mina naked. God knew, she had fantasized about it more than a few times since meeting the other woman. But the way her mouth went dry and all that moisture traveled south at a rapid rate told her that she hadn't been prepared at all.

"Are you even real? Holy, just fucking god. I can't." Her hand reached out and followed the plane of Mina's stomach, watching as Mina's abs twitched under her touch. Her skin was so soft that Beca wondered if it was really possible. Could this be one big hallucination?

But then Mina was pushing her back down on the bed again, pinning her arms above her head and kissing hard and nothing that felt this real and urgent could be a hallucination. The feeling of Mina's skin on hers, there were no words for it. She just got lost in the sensation of skin pressing against skin, sliding together gently, making Beca long for the moment when there was absolutely nothing between them because that would be what heaven felt like, surely.

"Mina," she whined into the other woman's mouth.

And that was really all it took before Mina was up and off of her and unfastening her skinny jeans and pulling them off with more ease than Beca herself managed. It had to be some sort of German voodoo. This all had to be some sort of German voodoo because she'd never felt like this in her entire life. How was it that someone could turn her on like this?

But then Mina's fingers were tracing the matching lace on Beca's panties and smirking and the answer to her question was in that expression. Fuck.

"A thong, little mouse, how very naughty of you." Her fingers slipped under the waistband and Beca stopped breathing for a second.

"You know, ah, that some people actually wear thongs on a daily basis, right?"

"Oh, I know, they are my prefered type of underwear, but you don't strike me as one of those kinds of people, Beca. I'd say you are more the hipster type, maybe the cheeky if you're feeling particularly daring. This, this you bought special just for me. How did you know I cannot resist a woman in a thong?"

"Uh, more important question is how you guessed my underwear type accurately because everyone fucking loves women in thongs man, but not everyone can just look at another person and be like, 'that one wears granny panties.'"

Mina's hands moved up from the light explorations of Beca's lower stomach and over until they were resting on Beca's hips, looped under the thin piece of material with purpose. "Oh, I suppose I'll tell you how I knew eventually, but right now that's not what I want to do at all." She started to pull downward and Beca got the message quickly and lifted her hips to help.

There was no time wasted. Mina's hands were in-between Beca's thighs as soon as her underwear was off. Beca's heart felt like it was going to beat out of her chest as fingers traced over the sensitive skin of her thighs, getting ever closer to where she needed them, but Mina didn't seem to want to give her anything easily. As soon as Mina finally reached the apex of her thighs, the other woman pulled back completely and just sat back, looking down at Beca with hooded eyes and a satisfied smile. Beca wanted to lunge up and make Mina continue what she'd been doing, but that look kept her where she was, she felt like prey, but she felt safe all at the same time.

"You know you're wearing far too much," Beca finally said after a few long seconds.

Mina just snorted. "That cliched line, mouse? Certainly you can do better." Her hands went to the zipper on her pants though and started to slowly undo them.

Beca shot up, sure that this pleasure was one she actually wanted for herself. She grabbed Mina's hands and stopped them, looking up into dark, stormy blue eyes. "Why change the classics when they work?" She guided Mina's hands away, turned the other woman, and pressed her down into the mattress. Leather was going to be a bitch to get off, but whatever. It would be worth the struggle.

Her hands went to the zipper and she kept her eyes locked on Mina's as she finished slowly unzipping the garment. She swore she could actually see Mina's eyes getting darker by the second, now verging on black, but that had to be a trick of the light. She found the waistband of Mina's pants by touch and started to pull them off centimeter by centimeter. Mina's hips came of the bed to help them over her wonderful ass and Beca licked her lips at the way she could see Mina's muscles flexing with the action.

Pulling off the pants as slowly as she was, they weren't really that much work. There were a couple snags, but Beca managed to fix them before it turned into some awkward fumbling on her part. She really wanted to look like she knew what she was doing for Mina. Which was a complete and total lie, but she had masturbated before and had googled some stuff so she'd be fine right? Maybe she should have taken Chloe up on that offer to experiment a few years back. At least then she'd be more confident.

Finally, pants off and thrown wherever, she crawled on top of Mina and laid down. She sighed at just how right it felt like this, only the barest scrap of fabric separating them. With the way Mina looked at her and the way this felt she may not be completely confident, but neither was she running. She had no desire to. She just wanted to lay here, and maybe would have indulged that want, if not for the fact that she was sopping wet and aching, and for the fact that after a few seconds Mina had flipped them and Beca was on her back once again, staring up at the other woman.

"I knew you'd be a top."

"Switch, actually, but liebling, right now I want to make sure I fuck you within an inch of your life and so being a top serves my purposes." Another kiss and this time Mina's hand actually made it to where Beca wanted, tracing gently through her wetness, exploring with no real purpose.

Beca moaned and whimpered and groaned and god knew what other noises made it out of her mouth because this touch was everything she wanted and not enough, and was that always how it was going to be with this woman because damn she could live with this form of torture forever. Her hips were moving trying to press down, trying to get more friction, trying to make Mina move faster, but that wasn't happening. It was just slow teasing, avoiding any place that could really bring her the pleasure she wanted. Beca could feel the smugness radiating off of Mina and she wanted to wipe that expression off her fucking angelic face, but she was a slave to Mina right now and really couldn't do anything of that sort.

Instead her arms came up and around Mina's back, scratching hard on pale skin that she was sure she left marks. She felt very satisfied at the image of Mina marked by her, red lines telling of just what they'd been up to in this hotel room. Mina retaliated by biting Beca's lip hard enough to bruise and god that didn't hurt as much as Beca knew it should. In fact it might have turned her on more than she should admit.

One well placed swipe of Mina's fingers and she was actually half sobbing she was half out of her mind on pleasure. Mina pulled back from the kiss, light from the window haloing her, looking like a tousled goddess that Beca should be worshipping and not vice versa as the case was.

"What do you want, little mouse?" Mina asked, breathing hard, hand still moving just enough to make Beca crazy.

"More, just more, god Mina. I need to come." She'd never heard herself like that before, so clearly desperate and begging, but she felt no shame. She wasn't sure if she could feel shame in that moment.

"Fingers or mouth?"

Beca short circuited a bit at that and for the life of her she couldn't make her mouth form any words.

Mina just grinned and said, "Both then." And she started kissing her way down Beca's body, taking a nipple into her mouth for a few seconds before releasing it, doing the same to the other, kissing down her stomach, tongue flicking out to circle her belly button, nipping at her abs, nuzzling the soft skin right before her center, and suddenly her mouth was latched onto Beca and Beca was literally screaming.

There was no teasing this time. Mina went straight to her clit and started to gently lick and Beca was dying. She had to be, because this felt too damn good for her not to be on some other plane somewhere that someone else would call paradise or whatever. Her hands flew to Mina's hand and she grabbed her hair, pulling the other woman farther into her, hoping she wasn't being too rough, but unable to really control herself.

"Oh my fucking god," she moaned at the feeling of a finger pressing at her entrance. She wasn't sure she could handle anymore, but then Mina was pressing inside of her and oh god. There were no words to describe the fireworks behind her eyelids.

Beca got the impression that Mina was cataloging all her reactions meticulously, because every time she gasped loudly Mina repeated whatever action had garnered the reaction until Beca couldn't even make a sound anymore, she was just mouthing curses to the ceiling, calling out to god, any god at all, it didn't matter. She was so close to coming. Beca could feel it building and building and she knew when the wave broke it was going to be huge and she would probably be ruined for any other person out there after this. Which was totally fucking cliche, but like she'd said earlier, she might as well use what worked.

One crook of Mina's fingers and she was gone. She felt herself arch off the bed, felt herself screaming, but that wasn't what really mattered. Arcs of pleasure were cascading through her, lighting her up from head to toe and for a few glorious moments she was the star on high next to the goddess.

And when she finally came down she was boneless, sparks still shooting through her at random intervals, making her shiver. Mina was resting with her chin on Beca's lower stomach smiling, open and honest and loving and Beca felt content just looking at a smile like that, forget the mind blowing orgasm she'd just had. She had been right. She was ruined for anyone else now. And she couldn't give less of a fuck if she tried.

"Hello there, liebling," Mina said, voice deep and rough and unbelievably sexy.

"Hi," Beca said, throat feeling just a bit tender. Just how fucking loud had she shouted?

Mina lifted herself up and scooted up the bed until she was facing Beca, laying on her side, just looking with that same smile on her face. Beca reached out, arm shaking, not quite ready to move just yet, but she was forcing it. She found Mina's hand and threaded their fingers together.

"I think I might have died there for a second," Beca said.

Mina laughed. "Oh, did you?"

"Yeah, I think you brought me back to life after killing me though, so good job."

Mina just shook her head and said nothing more.

They laid in silence for a few minutes, skin cooling in the warm room. Beca wanted nothing more than to return the favor, but she needed to actually have working limbs for that, and she wasn't quite there yet. Nor was she really pushing herself to be. This quiet in-between space was a nice space to just be. She didn't want to break it quite yet, but she would eventually. For now she just studied Mina in the low light, highlighting some of her curves and planes and hiding others in shadow. She could picture knowing every one of them, a kind of familiarity which took more than one night to build. She wanted that. She wanted a lot here, and yet it still wasn't scaring her.

"What are you thinking, tiny mouse?" Mina asked, breaking the quiet, but not the spell it had wrought on them.

"About you," Beca said simply. It was the truth after all, but she wasn't sure she wanted to share all the details just yet. "You?"

"About you," Mina parrotted back and her and Beca just shook her head.

"You think you're clever, don't you?"

"Always."

Beca scooted forward so that her head was tucked under Mina's chin and their bodies were pressed together once more. Just being this near the other woman had her warming up once more, had her limbs itching to move and please Mina. But for just a few more seconds she allowed herself to stay in the moment.

But then it was too much and her lips were seeking out the bare skin around Mina's collarbones and kissing it lightly, tongue flicking out to taste skin that tasted exactly like the cinnamon she smelled of constantly. Beca hummed in the back of her throat. She wondered how it was possible, but did it really matter as long as she could benefit from it? Mina sighed above her, arms tightening around Beca, drawing her closer.

Her mouth kept moving, teeth coming out to play, nipping hard enough to leave bruises that would show under Mina's mesh costume tomorrow at her next performance. She didn't really feel bad considering how many bruises she probably had of her own. And she didn't have access to a god awful amount of stage makeup. Amy and Stacie were going to have a field day tomorrow.

And the amount of fucks that she gave was less than zero and more like approaching negative infinity.

She kissed up Mina's neck and licked along the tendons there, standing out as Mina threw her head back into the pillow. Beca was buried in soft blonde hair and even softer skin and maybe she didn't believe in heaven, but if she did this would be it. Her goddess, her angel, her heaven, why should the line be blurred?

"Little mouse." It was a breathy sigh, an almost plea and Beca found that she could do nothing but obey. She pushed herself up on her elbow and kissed Mina for a few seconds, deeply and soundly before sitting up all the way and crawling down the bed. She looked up at Mina, sitting beside the other woman's knees and their eyes locked for a long moment. Beca licked her lips and sat forward, grabbing black cotton and dragging it down Mina's legs and now finally both of them were completely bare and Beca couldn't imagine anything more beautiful than this moment.

Except now she really didn't know where to start. Inexperience had her frozen to the spot and she could feel the little seeds of panic starting to plant themselves.

Mina reached out to her, hand resting on Beca's bare thigh and Beca took a deep breath. That one touch had said everything that a thousand words could. She set her own hand on top of Mina's and squeezed, saying thanks and another thousand things.

She sat forward again. She was familiar with using her hands with herself. Perhaps it was better to start with something familiar and work to other things later when she had gained a bit more confidence. And if she used her hands, then she could keep kissing Mina. It really was a win-win situation.

She laid herself out beside Mina, pressing her front to Mina's side once more and getting comfortable. Her hands started to wander Mina's body as her mouth started kissing every inch of skin again. She didn't want to tease for too long this time and so one hand moved farther south after a minute. Mina's legs parted easily for her and Beca reveled in the relieved sigh that escaped Mina.

If she had thought that Mina's skin was soft elsewhere, the skin of her inner thighs was like velvet. She let her fingertips play over the skin for a few long moments, not wanting to stop touching, but this wouldn't provide any real satisfaction and she would have time to explore every inch of Mina later. There would be later tonight and many nights after that. She didn't think that was the endorphins talking either.

Her hand drifted up and found Mina wet and wanting on oh god, Beca had never felt anything that had both rocked her to the core and turned her on so extremely. She had done this. Mina was this wet because Beca had turned her on this much.

"Oh my god," she whispered, unable to help it.

"I uh-agree," Mina stuttered out as Beca's fingers kept moving.

Beca smirked at Mina for a second and then concentrated on her movements and Mina's reactions. If she didn't know fully what she was going then she could fake it until she figured it out like always. Body language had helped her figure out many a situation, it wouldn't fail her now.

So when Mina arched at a particularly hard swipe of her fingers, Beca repeated it again. When Mina gasped loud enough that the people in the next room could hear she sped up. When Mina grabbed the sheets hard enough to turn her knuckles white at a particularly rough touch she experimented with different pressures. She felt like she was learning more and more about Mina as a person from this, though why she didn't know. All she was doing was figuring out what Mina liked in bed, but maybe that did actually tell something about a person in a way.

And on the whole she had to be doing something right because she felt Mina's walls tightening around her as Mina completely left the English language behind and started to curse in German and what sounded like French and maybe Danish. She felt more powerful than she ever had before. She was about to make this woman beside her break into pieces, to become the most vulnerable a person could, to say there wasn't a sort of power in that act was foolish. And yet she would never abuse that power, just revel in it and hold Mina while she came apart and reformed again.

When Mina came a minute later, shouting Beca's name into the room, German accent so very thick, Beca knew, if she hadn't been changed before, she was now, seeing how beautiful Mina was when she came. She kept on softly, letting Mina ride through the aftershocks pleasureably and then resumed her place tucked under Mina's chin. She wouldn't have thought that sex could be as transformative as this, wouldn't have thought she would ever think like this, but here she was. Tomorrow she was sure she would still be her awkward self, but something would still be changed irreversibly. And that was ok.

"Are you sure that was your first time with a woman, mouse?" Mina asked, voice rough from shouting.

"Definitely sure on that part."

"Wow, usually first times are very awkward, but then again, you always have been a head above." Mina chuckled, nuzzling into Beca's hair.

"I might have, um, watched some porn and read up on some things to prepare." She could feel her face heating up at the admission.

Mina laughed, full and shaking laughs that jostled Beca. "Well, whatever you did, it served you well."

Beca reached down and pulled the sheets over them when goosebumps started to cover her skin.

"Don't think I'm done with you yet. The night is still young."

Beca shivered for an entirely different reason. "Jesus, you're going to kill me, aren't you?"

"Only in the pleasurable way, liebling."

"Well, I'm sure I can get behind that." She snuggled further into Mina. "I can also get behind cuddling, though if you tell any of the Bellas that literally ever I will deny it so thoroughly that you'll begin to doubt you ever heard it yourself."

"Well then, I suppose I won't do that then." Her arms wrapped around Beca again. "Because I can get behind cuddling as well."

"Good."

They lay together as the night ticked on for who knew how long before Beca sat up just a bit.

"Mina?" she asked.

"Yes, mouse?"

"I don't think...I'm not going to be able to let this go after this." She looked away and held her breath, waiting.

Mina's hand came up and cupped her face and made Beca look back at her. "I feel the same way."

"Oh thank god." It came out in a rush of breath. She never let herself get invested. Well, the Bellas hadn't really given her a choice but to get invested, but for everything else it held true. Everything else, except now for Mina too.

Mina's thumb started to make soothing circles on Beca's cheek. "We will figure out everything, as we have been so far. I have faith in us."

And the look in Mina's eyes was so sincere that Beca could only say, "I have faith in us to."

Mina's smile was blinding as she pulled Beca back down into her. "Good. Now rest, I was not kidding about not being down with you. You will need all the strength you can get."

Beca snorted. "I think I can handle whatever you'll put out."

"Oh, I look forward to testing that assessment." Mina kissed Beca's hair and relaxed back into the bed. The arm around Beca started to move slowly up and down Beca's back and Beca knew the next round wasn't far off. She just smiled into Mina's amazingly soft skin, ready for whatever came at her next.


End file.
